Thursday, May 6, 2010

Wimbledon Men’s Doubles Tennis Players


The men’s doubles event at the All England Club has been dominated by the partnership of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, and more recently Todd Woodbridge and Jonas Bjorkman. From 1993 until Todd Woodbridge’s retirement from tennis in 2004, only three other doubles pairings have been successful at Wimbledon.

In each of the past three years, a different team has claimed the men’s doubles crown. In 2005 it was Stephen Huss and Wesley Moodie, in 2006 the fabulous Bryan brothers claimed the honours and in 2007 it was the turn of the number eight pairing on the Stanford ATP doubles ranking, Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra.
Effectively the men’s doubles event is now an entirely open event. There is no one team in dominion, so it is possible that one of the top ranking teams will be successful at the 2008 tournament.

Although the Bryan brothers are currently ranked as the number one team, they have been more successful at the other Grand Slam tournaments, the Australian Open in particular. There is no reason, however, for them not to claim their second win in London.

Known as the “dream team” the twin brothers, Bob and Mike, have been at the top of the rankings for a straight three years. They clinched the 2007 Australian Open and took three ATP Masters Series titles at Miami, Monte Carlo and Hamburg and then went on to end the season with three ATP tournament wins in Basel, Madrid and Paris. This takes the Wimbledon men’s doubles tennis players to 44 career doubles titles.

Defending champions Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra must fancy their chances of a back-to-back win at Wimbledon. Although they have won only seven matches in the four Grand Slam events of the 2007 season, they did claim the biggest prize of all, and that, of course, was the Wimbledon men’s doubles crown. Llodra has won successive Australian Open titles with his previous partner, Fabrice Santoro.

Partners, Paul Hanley and Kevin Ullyett are currently ranked number three on the Stanford ATP doubles ranking. They reached the Australian Open semi-finals and were runners-up at the Masters Series events at Hamburg and Montreal, and the end-of-year Grand Slam, the US Open.

Zimbabwean, Ullyett has won two Grand Slam titles with previous partner Wayne Black – the 2001 US Open and the 2005 Australian Open.

Swede, Simon Aspelin and partner, Austrian, Julian Knowle had a fantastic debut season. They reached the semi-finals of the Masters Series events at Monte Carlo and Hamburg and after playing only four tournaments together they claimed their first win at Poertschach. They quickly followed up the win with titles at Halle, on grass and Bastad, on clay.

At the US Open they caused a major upset by ousting the favoured Bryan brothers to claim the title, and they ended their 2007 season by reaching the quarterfinals at Madrid and the semi-finals in Paris, and ranked number two.

Any of these teams could grab the honours at Wimbledon 2008, but if experience is an important variable, then you would have to put your money on the American duo of Bob and Mike Bryan.

Wimbledon 2010 Tickets

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