The doubles entry list for the BNP Paribas Open was announced earlier this week. Among the pairings are huge-serving singles players Milos Raonic and John Isner. Additional “singles players” in the doubles lineup are Richard Gasquet and Benoit Paire, Roberto Bautista Agut and Viktor Troicki, Dominic Thiem and Philipp Kohlschreiber, and Grigor Dimitrov (with veteran doubles specialist Max Mirnyi).
Year in and year out, the Indian Wells Masters consistently boasts the most unique and intriguing doubles draw of the entire season. The 2016 field is already a strong one and undoubtedly will only get better and better when wild cards are revealed and on-sight signups take place.
Although Raonic and Isner are arguably the two best servers on tour, it would not be wise to go ahead and pencil them in for the title without ever getting broken. Isner has achieved plenty of doubles success during his career with fellow big man Sam Querrey, but the 6’10” American once teamed up with 6’11” Croat Ivo Karlovic and the first-time pairing did not end well. At the 2008 Australian Open, Isner and Karlovic dropped their opening match 7-6(3), 6-3 to Agustin Calleri and Juan Pablo Brzezicki.
Indian Wells list:
DIRECT ENTRY
1. Rojer/Tecau
2. Dodig/Melo
3. Bryan/Bryan
4. Murray/Soares
5. Bopanna/Mergea
6. Isner/Raonic
7. Gasquet/Paire
8. Pospisil/Sock
9. Herbert/Mahut
10. Roger-Vasselin/Zimonjic
11. Bautista Agut/Troicki
12. Kohlschreiber/Thiem
13. Kontinen/Peers
14. Kubot/Matkowski
15. Cabal/Farah
16. Nestor/Stepanek
17. Klaasen/Ram
18. Ferrer/Sá
19. Inglot/Lindstedt
20. Lopez/Lopez
21. Dimitrov/Mirnyi
22. Marrero/Tomic
ALTERNATES
23. Cuevas/Granollers
24. Huey/Klizan
25. Qureshi/Simon
26. Fleming/Murray
27. Petzschner/Peya
28. Johnson/Querrey
29. Goffin/Mannarino
30. Bellucci/Mayer
31. Seppi/Sousa
32. Bhupathi/Wawrinka
33. Pavic/Venus
Topics: BNP Paribas Open, Doubles tennis, Indian Wells, Tennis News