World number two Rafael Nadal made a losing start to his new season when he and his partner Bartolome Salva-Vidal were defeated in their opening doubles match at the Chennai Open.
The French Open champion dropped serve once in each set as the 2007 finalists went down 6-4 6-4 against the first-time pairing of Cypriot Marcus Baghdatis, the singles second seed, and Marc Gicquel of France.
Defending champion Belgian Xavier Malisse returned after an injury-marred 2007 to ease to a 6-4 6-3 win over Gilles Muller of Luxembourg. Malisse upset top seed Nadal in the singles semi-finals last year.
The 27-year-old Belgian grabbed two early titles in 2007, in Chennai and Delray Beach, before a wrist injury sidelined him for six months and he dropped out of the top 100.
He showed his class today against the error-prone Muller in the first-round clash between unseeded rivals lasting just under two hours.
Malisse broke the big-serving Muller's serve in the opening game before serving out the first set in 35 minutes.
He again snatched an early break in the second set to lead 4-2 and eventually sealed the match when Muller, serving to stay in the game, netted a return on the first matchpoint.
Sixth seed Jurgen Melzer of Austria defeated Paul Capdeville of Chile 6-2 6-4 while Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin thrashed Indian national grasscourt champion Vishnu Vardan 6-1 6-2.
Chennai results:
4-Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) bt Jiri Vanek (Czech Republic) 6-3 6-2
Florent Serra (France) bt Ivan Navarro (Spain) 6-4 7-6
Edouard Roger-Vasselin (France) bt Vishnu Vardhan (India) 6-1 6-2
6-Juergen Melzer (Austria) bt Paul Capdeville (Chile) 6-2 6-4
Xavier Malisse (Belgium) bt Gilles Muller (Luxembourg) 6-4 6-3.
