In the second Group B doubles match on Monday evening at The O2, Barclays ATP World Tour Finals debutants Lukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach got off to the best possible start by defeating two-time Grand Slam champions Lukas Dlouhy and Leander Paes 6-3, 7-6(3).

No prisoners were taken in a match both teams were very eager to win, with many players taking body blows – including one in the throat for the 36-year-old Paes. It was the sixth seeds who came out on top after 92 minutes, though, having saved five of six threats on their serve and converted two of the four break points they created.

Dlouhy was targetted by Kubot and Marach in the tie-break and a barrage of shots from the back saw the Czech player break down at the net to give the Polish-Austrian duo a 6-3 lead. They converted their first match point as Dlouhy returned serve long.

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An appearance in the elite eight-team field caps a stellar season for Kubot and Marach, who have won three ATP World Tour titles from four finals and compiled a 40-19 match record. The European duo, a semi-finalist at the Australian Open in January, titled at the Grand Prix Hassan II (d. Aspelin-Hanley) in Casablanca, the Serbia Open 2009 (d. Brunstrom-Rojer) in Belgrade and the Bank Austria TennisTrophy (d. Knowle-Melzer) in Vienna, while finishing runner-up the Abierto Mexicano Telcel (l. to Cermak-Mertinak) in Acapulco.

"For us, it's unbelievable to be here," said Marach. "I mean, it's [an] amazing effort from us. We worked very hard the whole year. We have our fitness coach all the time with us. We do almost every day fitness. And the day off is our travelling day home most of the time. I think it's an achievement for us here because really our work is very hard. I'm very happy that we are sitting here today, and also of course that we win the first round."

Czech-Indian pairing Dlouhy and Paes were bidding for their 50th career victory together. In just 15 tournaments this season, they have won two Grand Slam titles at Roland Garros (d. Moodie-Norman) and the US Open (d. Bhupathi-Knowles) and finished runner-up at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament (l. to Nestor-Zimonjic) in Rotterdam.

"I can't really speak for the other top teams that have lost, but I can speak for us. We just didn't play our best game today," lamented Paes. "We had a bunch of chances, especially in the second set. Had a bunch of chances to break. I think it was four or five break points. Didn't take it. Weren't good enough for the mark. Also you have to give credit to the other boys. They came out and brought the game to us. We knew their weaknesses, we knew their strengths. But they managed to play well enough to beat us today."