Melbourne, Australia, 17 January 2013 | David Packman

Three Australian pairs and veteran doubles specialist Paul Hanley chalked up wins at Melbourne Park on Wednesday as the doubles events began at Australian Open 2013.

Most notably in men’s doubles, Aussie partners Alex Bolt and Greg Jones registered a gutsy 3-6 6-2 7-6(5) come-from-behind win over their more-fancied opponents, Columbians Alejandro Falla and Santiago Giraldo.

Also coming through was Sam Groth and Matt Reid, who battled it out with fellow Aussie duo Chris Guccione and James Duckworth. This entertaining affair went right down to the wire, with Groth and Reid finally getting the better of their countrymen 6-3 6-7(1) 7-6(5).

Experienced Aussie doubles campaigner Paul Hanley was also successful with his American partner Eric Butorac, upsetting thirteenth seeds Santiago Gonzalez and Scott Lipsky 6-4 7-5.

Bowing out in the opening round were young guns Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios, who just didn’t have enough for the highly-credentialed Rohan Bopanna and Rajeev Ram (12), succumbing 2-6 4-6.

In the women’s draw, teen prodigy Ashleigh Barty inflicted some further pain on Italy’s Francesca Schiavone after she and partner in crime Casey Dellacqua had a comfortable victory over the veteran Italian and Slovak  Polona Hercog, 6-2 6-4.

Barty was also successful over Schiavone in a singles encounter at this year’s Hopman Cup in Perth.

Jarmila Gajdosova and her partner, Czech Klara Zakopalova, were no match for the tournament’s 15th seeds, Su-Wei Hsieh and Shuai Peng, going down easily 1-6 4-6.

Finally, young Australian wildcards Storm Sanders and Viktorija Rajicic were unsuccessful in their bid against 14th seeds, Natalie Grandin and Vladimira Uhlirova, losing in straight sets 4-6 4-6.

Thursday sees plenty more Australians in doubles action, including Samantha Stosur, who is paired with Germany’s Julia Goerges, taking on the seeded duo of Daniela Hantuchova and Anabel Medina Garrigues.