Kiwi doubles player wins through to second round at the French Open

Marcus Daniell.

Marcus Daniell has won his first ever match at Roland Garros, teaming with American Brian Baker to advance to the second round of the doubles.

The scratch pairing who only came together just before the tournament, have beaten Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis and Russian Dimitry Tursinov 6-3,6-2 in one hour and six minutes.

Baghdatis is a former top 10 ranked singles player who has been runner up at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

"It feels good" Walking on the court against them you know they have a reputation and can hit a really good ball when they want to and we just had to put really good doubles together." Daniell said.

"This was the first slam I ever played last year and to come back and start the ball rolling it feels great, it feels amazing."

Daniell and Baker served well from the outset with a first service percentage of more than 70 percent, only faced one break point in the match.

"The high first serve percentage helped us and we were trying to move a lot at the net to make them uncomfortable." Daniell said.

The Kiwi / American combo converted three of 11 break point chances against their opponents.

"We created a lot of chances at the start of the second set and didn't break through until later on, but the face that we were creating the chances is a good sign. We are happy with the performance but know we can play a lot better." Daniell said.

It's the third time that Daniell has advanced past the first round of a Grand Slam, after reaching the third round at Wimbledon last year and the second round of the US Open.
A good run in Paris would boost Daniell from his current ranking of 76 which isn't high enough for him to team up with regular partner Artem Sitak at Grand Slams.

"It's good that we are both in the tournament and the better we can both do the better it can help us as a team. If we can go further we can solidify our place in the Wimbledon main draw and that's a big goal. We have just been confirmed in the main draw for the Stuttgart ATP grass court tournament next month." Daniell said.

Daniell and Baker will next face 11th seeds Henri Kontinen from Finland and Australian John Peers. It's a prospect the Kiwi is far from daunted by.

"I grew up a lot playing against John Peers, they are both very good doubles players but the reality is they won't hit any bigger balls than they saw today."

That match will be Friday night New Zealand time meaning the priority for Daniell is finding some new accommodation.

"The lady I am staying with runs an AirB&B and she's kicking us out tomorrow so we are going to have to find another place to stay!

Meanwhile Artem Sitak will get his doubles campaign underway tonight playing with American Nicholas Monroe against Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili and Argentine Diego Schwartzman.

They are first on court eight from 9pm New Zealand time.

Matt Brown is at the French Open thanks to Emirates Airline