MADRID, Spain - The four highest-seeded teams enjoyed first round byes, but there was nevertheless plenty of intense competition on display in the first round of the Mutua Madrid Open's doubles competition, which began on Sunday and except for two matches wrapped up on Monday.

With the French Open just a few weeks away, last year's singles finalists, Francesca Schiavone and Samantha Stosur, have chosen to continue their preparations together this week as a wildcard doubles outfit. And after a slow start, the Italian-Australian duo prevailed against Schiavone's Fed Cup teammates, Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, 16 75 105.

The other wildcard team in action on Monday, home favorites Lourdes Domínguez Lino and Laura Pous-Tio, were not so fortunate: they went down the to Polish doubles specialists Klaudia Jans and Alicja Rosolska, 64 75.

In other all-unseeded affairs, Nadia Petrova and Anastasia Rodionova were too strong for Vera Dushevina and Tatiana Poutchek, 63 64, while China's Peng Shuai and Zheng Jie were also straight-sets winners over Alla Kudryavtseva and Jasmin Woehr, 61 62.

Hsieh Su-Wei and Yan Zi held off Monica Niculescu and Shahar Peer to record a 63 75 win, while Casey Dellacqua enjoyed another win on her return from injury, pairing with fellow Aussie Rennae Stubbs to down wildcards Simona Halep and Polona Hercog, 64 64.

Top seeds Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta, play their first match on Tuesday, against Spaniards Nuria Llagostera Vives and Arantxa Parra Santonja, who won their first round match on Sunday. Peng and Zheng face fifth seeds Victoria Azarenka and Maria Kirilenko, who were also Sunday winners over the hot new combination of Daniela Hantuchova and Agnieszka Radwanska, 46 63 106.

Singles stars Vera Zvonareva and Svetlana Kuznetsova, playing as wildcards, face No.3 seeds Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova - the reigning Wimbledon and US Open champions - in the second round. The Russian duo beat Chuang Chia-Jung and Olga Govortsova on Sunday.