Doubles pairs that India needs to look out for at Olympics

Amidst all the controversy, Indian tennis fraternity seemed to have lost sight of the reality. The soap-opera fiasco between the AITA and players had made the task of winning a gold medal such an easy job that all India needed to do to win a gold medal was to name a doubles pair for the Olympics. Now that the dust has finally settled, it is time for some introspection.

As Indian tennis fans sit back to take stock of things, they realize that the path to glory is not an easy one. There are doubles teams which are capable of derailing India’s quest for tennis gold. Let us take a look at the best of those pairs.

Specialists:

Bryan Brothers (USA):

Unarguably, the greatest tennis doubles pair since ‘The Woodies’ left the center stage. Winners of eleven grand slams, Bryan twins will go into the Olympics with an intention to add the sole missing prize from their trophy cabinet – a Gold medal. They returned with a Bronze medal from Beijing after losing to eventual gold medalists Fedrer & Wawrinka in the semifinals. The twins are 34-9 this season with four titles and final appearances in season’s first two Grand Slams.

Form: 4.5/5 Chemistry: 5/5 Grass court: 4.5/5 X-factor: 3/5

The Poles (Poland):

After struggling to stay inside the top 10 for six years, the polish pair of Mariusz Fyrstenberg & Marcin Matkowski has finally taken its game to an all new level in the past one year. The Poles have had an excellent year with some outstanding performances that even includes a final appearance in the US open. Currently, the duo sits fourth in this season’s ATP points race, with two titles. However, the pair has always found going tough on grass courts. They have just one win in eight matches at Wimbledon in the last six years; they were also knocked out of the first round at ATP Eastbourne.

Form: 4/5 Chemistry: 4.5/5 Grass court: 2/5 X-factor: 3/5

Head to Head Vs Indian Pair: Lost to Indian team in ATP Dubai Final.

Janko Tipsarevic & Nenad Zimonjic (Serbia):

Beijing failure means that Nenad Zimonjic will not be partnering Novak Djokovic this time around. Instead, the doubles specialist will team up with another Serbian Janko Tipsarevic. Both the players are having a satisfactory season as doubles players with their partners. The duo participated in ATP London to gain valuable experience ahead of the Olympics. They were only beaten in the semifinals by Bryan brothers in three sets, a good omen of things to come for the Serbian pair.

Form: 3.5/5 Chemistry: 3.5/5 Grass Court: 4/5 X-factor: 4/5

Giant Killers:

If you thought one of the specialist teams to be the eventual champions, here is the catch. The last two Olympics golds have been won by make-shift teams of non-specialists: Gonzalez & Massu in 2004; Fedrer & Wawrinka in 2008. Simply put, you can’t rule out the singles players against double specialists.

Michael Llodra & Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France):

Michael Llodra, known for his infamous celebration of Australian open triumph with ‘Magician’ Santoro, is an established doubles player with three Grand Slams to his name. He has had two decent seasons with partner Zimonjic. Tsonga, on the other hand, sparingly turns up for the doubles events. But when he does, he makes sure he is no lesser than the other doubles specialists. The duo regularly pair up for the Davis cup matches, where they have a perfect record this year. They are my personal favourites to win the title.

Form: 4/5 Chemistry: 3.5/5 Grass Court: 4/5 X-factor: 5/5

Head to Head Vs Indian Pair: Tsonga has beaten the Indian pair two times this season with unknown partners.

Radek Stepanek & Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic):

The regular doubles team of Czechs at the Davis cup is another one of the teams to watch out for at the Olympics. Radek is having one of his best seasons as a doubles player with a victory at the Australian Open. And, Tomas Berdych has been his scintillating self in the singles. The pair will be hoping to make amends for the first round exit at Beijing.

Form: 3.5/5 Chemistry: 3.5/5 Grass Court: 4/5 X-factor: 3/5

Rafael Nadal & Marcel Granollers (Spain):

Both Spaniards are individually brilliant doubles players. Marcel has formed a formidable partnership with countryman Marc Lopez this season with three final appearances. Doubles giant killer, Nadal has eight double titles to his name including one-off Master titles he has won with Marc Lopez. The pair is coming off after conceding a walkover in the quarterfinals at Halle last week. Just like Poles, grass surface may be their undoing.

Form: 4/5 Chemistry: 2.5/5 Grass Court: 3/5 X-factor: 4/5

Head to Head Vs Indian Pair: Spaniards lost to Indian duo in straight sets in the 2^nd round at Miami.

Roger Fedrer & Stanislas Wawrinka (Swtizerland):

Switzerland’s doubles campaign is beset with problems. The relationship between two close friends has somewhat soured with the Davis cup controversy, where Fedrer accused Wawrinka of not giving 100 percent. Lack of match practice only adds to the headache; Wawrinka has played 7 competitive doubles matches this year and Fedrer one. Notwithstanding all those bottlenecks, you can’t really leave the defending champions out of the reckoning. They had found themselves in similar situation in lead up to the Olympics in 2008, but that had no bearing on their gold-winning performance in Beijing.

Form: 3/5 Chemistry: 3/5 Grass Court: 3.5/5 X-factor: 4/5

Head to Head Vs Indian Pair: Wawrinka is 1-1 against the Indian pair.

Outsiders:

In tennis, Doubles is a funny game. The level at which a doubles team plays follows a sine wave pattern- fraught with ups and downs. So, any underdog team can be a potential threat in the initial rounds. Here are some of them-Murray brothers; Britain’s most probable wild cards Colin Fleming/Ross Hutchins; Israeli pair of Ram & Elrich; Doubles veteran Daniel Nestor and little known Vasek pospisil; Swedish duo of J. Brunstrom & R. Lindstedt; Jurgen Melzer & Alexander Peya of Austria