PARIS, May 30: Pakistan’s Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and his Dutch partner Jean Julien Rojer cleared their first hurdle at the French Open with a straight-set win in the men’s doubles on Wednesday.

The Pakistani-Dutch pair breezed past French duo of Jonathan Dasnieres De Veigy and Nicolas Renavand 6-3, 6-2 in the first-round match which lasted just over an hour.

Aisam and Rojer will next face Bjorn Phau of Germany and Adil Shamasdin of Canada in the second round. Phau and Shamasdin defeated Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Albano Olivetti of France 3-6, 7-5, 6-1

Aisam, whose ranking recently dropped from 14th to 16th, is hoping to reach the Roland Garros final in order to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.

The top two seeds also won their opening matches with ease. Top seeded Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Canada’s Daniel Nestor beat Robin Haase of the Netherlands and Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 6-3, 6-4, while the second-seeded Bryan twins, Bob and Mike, of the US brushed aside Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine and Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny 7-5, 6-3.—Agencies

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