Jarkko Nieminen and Andrei Pavel will next meet last year’s beaten finalists Fabrice Santoro and Nenad Zimonjic, the No. 4 seeds, in the second round of the ATP Masters Series Monte-Carlo.

Nieminen and Pavel set up the clash after a 7-6(4) 6-2 win over Benjamin Becker and Eric Butorac, who replaced Todd Perry and Sebastien Prieto in the draw.

Russian Igor Andreev and Dmitry Tursunov knocked out wild cards Yves Allegro and Gilles Simon 3-6, 6-2, 10-8 (Match TB) in 66 minutes. Allegro finished as runner-up with Prieto last week in Valencia (l. to Moodie-Perry).

Andreev and Tursunov will now play No. 7 seeds Simon Aspelin and Julian Knowle in the second round.

Mahesh Bhupathi and Radek Stepanek, who reached the semifinals last year, defeated Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra 6-4, 6-4 in 79 minutes. Bhupathi won the 2003 title with Max Mirnyi.

The Indian-Czech squad will meet defending champions and No. 2 seed Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi in the second round.