No troubles for the top seeded doubles teams in Sydney

Written by: Staff on 8th January 2013

No troubles for the top seeded doubles teams in Sydney

epa03388469 Bob Byran (R) and Mike Bryan (L) of the US talk during the final set in their win over Leander Paes of India and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic in the men's doubles final on the twelfth day of the 2012 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 07 September 2012. The US Open runs through Sunday 09 September 2012. EPA/JUSTIN LANE |

Top seeds the Bryan brothers might have made tough going of their match against Juan Sebastian Cabal and Marcin Matkowski (6-4, 5-7, 11-9) that one going right to the wire in the champions tiebreak, but as the saying goes – when the going gets tough, the tough progress to the second round to face Julian Benneteau and Michael Llodra.

Second seeds Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek had an almost as arduous beginning to the Apia International event coming through against the formidable partnership of Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Gilles Simon with a final tally of 6-4, 4-6, 10-5 – not such a heart-stopping tiebreak to finish that one but they would’ve been happier with a clean win. Stepanek and Simon are both seeded in the singles draw on opposite sides of the split, so may well face each other again on the courts in Sydney.

All Spanish emparejamiento, or ‘pairing’ if you’re not as pretentious as moi, Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez had a lighter workout against Bopanna and Melo, prevailing in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 – something no doubt Paes will feel a certain amount of schadenfreude about. Four languages in one (albeit protracted) sentence, how about that for chutzpah?

The famous and incredibly successful pairing of Max “The Beast” Mirnyi and Daniel “The Canadian” Nestor have broken up, but far from floating around like flotsam they’ve formed new power partnerships. Mirnyi has paired with Horia Tecau, who of course is a former partner of Robert Lindtstedt – themselves a very worthy partnership. Nestor has taken it up with Mahesh Bhupathi – who of course has played with just about everyone, but most notably Paes and Bopanna. It’s tough enough to keep up with who is playing with who these days, never mind what the results are!

Across the Tasman sea in New Zealand – or “across the ditch” as they say in those parts – another tournament is taking place. Although it hasn’t attracted the stellar names in terms of ranking partnerships, it is worth a mention due to the British players involved. Wimbledon doubles champ Jonathon Marray is playing with Andre Sa (Jamie Murray’s former teammate) but they came up against X-Man Xavier Malisse and Frank Moser who defeated them 7-6(5), 6-4.

West Lothian highlander Colin Fleming and Belo Horizonte native Bruno Soares (what do those two talk about?!?) are top seeds for auckland, and they duly dispatched local boys and wild-card entrants Daniel King-Turner and Michael Venus. They had to come back from a set down to do so, finishing things off 2-6, 7-6(6), 10-7. No doubt heart-breaking for the New Zealanders, but no doubt heart-warming for Ross Hutchins, Fleming’s 2012 partner who is taking time off the tour to battle cancer. Fleming and Hutchins actually played Bruno Soares (and Alexander Peya) in September last year, losing by way of champions tiebreak in the final of the Proton Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur. Ross has aimed to get back on court around this time next year.

Delgado and Skupski – yes, they’re British, Jamie and Ken if you must know – were soundly beaten 6-2, 6-2 by Hanescu and Klizan (nope, I haven’t heard of them either). Jamie, now full-time doubles partners for a considerable time with Ken, must hope for a better showing at the Australian Open than last year in which he and Jonathon Marray went out in the first round. The far side of the world is a long way to travel for a couple of early exits.

Topics: Bob Bryan, Juan Sebastian Cabal, Julian Benneteau, Marcin Matkowski, Michael Llodra, Mike Bryan, Sports, Sydney Tennis News, Tennis News

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GameSetNash says:

January 8, 2013 at 3:43 pm

RT @10sBalls_com: No troubles for the top seeded doubles teams in Sydney: http://t.co/dAts47TM #tennis @GameSetNash