Invercargill (New Zealand): Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi beat Mark Neilsen and Matt Prentice 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) today (Feb 7, 2004) to give India a 2-1 lead in its Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group 1 first round tennis tie with New Zealand.

The former world No 1 doubles pair outclassed New Zealand's untried combination and continued the trend of the match in which all matches have been won in straight sets.

New Zealand's Simon Rea beat Harsh Mankad in the opening singles on Feb 6 while Paes beat Nielsen to leave the match balanced after the first day.