Britain's Joe Salisbury and American partner Rajeev Ram brushed aside a lack of practice to get their ATP Finals campaign off to a winning start.
They had been unable to train together in the build-up because Salisbury was self-isolating for two weeks after his coach tested positive for Covid-19.
But there was little sign of rustiness in a 7-5 3-6 10-5 win over Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo in their opening round-robin match at London's O2 Arena.
Salisbury is the only Briton competing.
He and Ram took the opening set against Poland's Kubot and Brazil's Melo with Ram's fantastic forehand service return but then paid the price for a drop in serving percentages to allow their opponents to level and take it to a match tie-break.
The second seeds edged ahead in the decider with another brilliant Ram return on a Kubot serve and eventually sealed victory with a neat Salisbury volley at the net.
Australian Open champions Salisbury, 28, and Ram, 36, are seeking to improve on last year's performance at the season-ending event, where they went out in the group stage.
Earlier in the day in the same Group Mike Bryan, debutants Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic fought back to beat German third seeds Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies.
Fifth seeds Koolhof and Mektic won the final five points in the match tie-break to clinch a 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-4) 10-7 victory.
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