Tennis: Abrams picks 9 1st round doubles matches from Indian Wells

Indian Wells
Men’s Doubles
First Round Picks

Is there anything better than watching some of your favorite tennis players pick a partner and play doubles? It’s really exciting to see players who you marvel at on the tennis court match up with a partner whom you would never guess was their buddy, let alone a partner, and split the court to showcase their volleys and net play after watching them blast ground strokes from the backcourt for years. Watching them all compete in a totally different setting and different game is even more fun when you realize that the best singles players more often then not lack the detailed nuances required to win in professional doubles, usually because they simply don’t play enough. This makes for interesting matches between accomplished doubles teams playing against players who have acquired “names” for themselves by being successful singles players.

Because the “obvious” winners are never really that, it makes watching the matches truly enjoyable, and picking winning teams more challenging then picking individual singles matchups. There are some exciting teams in matchups that I just can’t pick, like Novak Djokovic playing with Fabio Fognini, Denis Shapovalov playing with Rohan Bopanna, Jeremy Chardy playing with Milos Raonic, Feliciano Lopez playing with Diego Schwartzman, Mackie McDonald playing with Reilly Opelka, and Lucas Pouille playing with Stan Wawrinka. But check out these matches in which I do pick winners and losers:

Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut over John Isner and Sam Querrey
Herbert and Mahut are the top seeds here and are a tremendously successful team, having just won the Australian Open. Isner and Querrey, on paper, look dangerous, and they are because they both are really tall and serve big. But neither have great hands and although they are really difficult to lob over, they are not great volleyers. On the pro Tour a 10-point Championship tiebreaker is played in lieu of a third set, so any team that can hold serve can win a match without ever breaking their opponents serve. Being lucky, therefore, is much more important to winning in doubles than winning in singles. For instance, it matters greatly who gets to serve more points in any tiebreaker, or who might get a point when a ball hits the net and dribbles over. For this reason, I give the Americans a chance to upset the 2016 Indian Wells champions . . . but not a big one.

Kyle Edmund and Neal Skupski over Nikola Mektic and Horacio Zeballos
The Brits are good doubles players. Last week in Acapulco they lost to the Bryan brothers in their first match in straight sets, but they are a legitimate team. Mektic, the 30-year old Croatian, played with Spaniard Marcel Granollers last week in Mexico and they got all the way to the semis eventually losing to Krajicek/Sitak 13-11 in a Championship tiebreaker. But Zeballos is not as good a doubles player as Granollers, and I think the Brits will win on chemistry alone. But once again, if it gets to the exciting Championship breaker, all bets are off.

Sascha and Mischa Zverev over Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah
The Zverev brothers won the Masters 500 tournament last week in Acapulco, so they are a real threat. On their way to the finals the Zverevs took out the Bryan brothers 10-7 in a Championship tiebreaker, and Feliciano and Marc Lopez (no relations) 12-10 in another breaker to show how clutch they can be. The Colombians are fifth seeded, and are each ranked No. 10 in the world in doubles, so they can play. However they were seeded second in Melbourne at the Australian Open and lost in the first round to Jack Sock and Jackson Withrow. The Zverevs are on a roll, are very clutch, and know each other as well as can be, so I think they’ll take this match. But it’ll be close, and that’s what makes it so much fun.

Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic over Marco Cecchinato and Andreas Seppi
Marach, the Austrian now living in Panama, and Pavic, the Croatian now living in the Bahamas, are one of the best doubles teams in the world. They’re seeded third here, after winning four titles in 2018 including the Australian Open. They only started playing together in late 2017, and even though they are a really odd tennis couple (besides not sharing the same culture Marach is 38 years old and Pavic is 25), they are extremely effective together and seem to mesh very well as a pair. The Italians are both better singles players, but neither has had a lot of success in doubles, and that usually shows when two good singles players play doubles against an established doubles team. Seppi, at age 35, has played over 300 career doubles matches, but has won only a third of them, and Cecchinato has only played 35 career doubles matches with a paltry six wins. Unless the Italians come up with some magic pixie dust, Marach and Pavic should triumph and move on here in the desert.

Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo over Wesley Koolhof and Stefanos Tsitsipas
Wesley Koolhof, a 29-year-old from The Netherlands, is not a household name, probably because he makes his living exclusively as a doubles player now that the ITF has changed the Tour’s tournament formats, which has resulted in Koolhof losing all of his singles ranking points. Although he has no singles ranking, Koolhof is ranked 46th in the world in doubles and has already shared one title this year (with Marcus Daniell). Like most top ranked singles players, Tsitsipas rarely plays doubles, having only 14 Tour matches on his resume. But the Greek sensation does everything on a tennis court well, and the very shots that doubles puts a premium on, his serve, volley, and return of serve are all very dependable, and sometimes spectacular shots, and should compliment Koolhof well. But Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo are both solid, if unspectacular doubles players, and bring tons of experience along with lots of success into this match. Melo, the 6’8” Brazilian who has been ranked No. 1 in the world in doubles, has 9 Masters 1000 tournament titles to his credit, and won Wimbledon with Kubot in 2017. Kubot, who has also been ranked No. 1 in doubles in the world as recently as last May, has 24 career titles, and has won doubles titles with eight different partners in the past ten years. Experience should prove crucial here, and the players from Brazil and Poland should prevail in this match, which should produce a lot of shot making and great rallies.

Taylor Fritz and Nick Kyrgios over Stevie Johnson and Dominic Thiem
This is another match that should produce a lot of interesting shot making from four players who have never shared a tennis court together. Neither is an established team and all four are accomplished singles players. Interestingly, Stevie Johnson, at 29, is the oldest of the four, as Thiem is 25, Kyrgios is 23, and Fritz is 21. Kyrgios is coming off perhaps the best week in his tennis life as he rolled to the title in Acapulco beating Andreas Seppi, Rafa Nadal, Stan Wawrinka, John Isner, and Sascha Zverev in succession and is brimming with confidence. As long as Kyrgios wants to play, he should be able to dominate all aspects of this match, as Fritz holds his service games. Thiem is terrific, and solid as a rock, but his game is more suited to clay courts, and therefore won’t be as effective on the doubles court. Johnson has to figure out a way to hide his non-existent backhand (like Jack Sock does so effectively in doubles), but Fritz and Kyrgios won’t give Johnson the time he needs to run around any shot pushed to that backhand side. These guys aren’t doubles players, but because they are all shot makers, the match should be exciting. Fritz and Kyrgios will move on as long as the Aussie wants to play.

Bob and Mike Bryan over Karen Khachanov and Daniil Medvedev
The last time Khachanov and Medvedev played together, just a week and a half ago in Dubai, they were shockingly bad, going down to Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury 2 and 1. I don’t see any way the Russians can take out the Bryan brothers, one of the greatest doubles teams in Tour history, after that debacle. If the Russians don’t play any better this match won’t last an hour. Even if they do, the Bryans should breeze. But one note of caution: the Russians are both better singles players than the now 40-year-old Bryans, so you never know…..

Henri Kontinen and John Peers over Nikoloz Basilashvili and Artem Sitak
Kontinen and Peers got to the finals of this year’s Australian Open finals after having won it in 2017. They have three Masters 1000 titles together as well as the 2016 and 2017 Nitto ATP Finals title and the 2018 Queens Club championships. They are an established doubles team and have been very successful, having been ranked as the first and second ranked doubles players in the world. They should beat the Georgia/New Zealand team, although Sitak is an effective and successful doubles player. But experience and chemistry will be the deciding factors in this match.

Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau over Marton Fucsovics and Guido Pella
The established team of Rojer and Tecau have been playing together since 2014 and have won 18 titles as a team including the 2017 U.S. Open, the 2016 ATP Masters 1000, the 2015 ATP Finals and Wimbledon in 2015. Fucsovics and Pella generally don’t play a ton of doubles, and when they have in the past they’ve played with other partners. That doesn’t make for the right combination for the pair from Hungary and Argentina. Expect Rojer and Tecau to roll.