It occurred to me that my post about the doubles competition on the singles thread would get buried once the QR2 singles matches got under way, hence this new thread.
Wouldn't you just know it:
(4) Rohan Bopanna & Aisam ul-Haq Qureshi (IND/PAK) (WR 15) vs Colin Fleming & Ken Skupski (WR 27)
Ross Hutchins & Jordan Kerr (AUS) (WR 23) vs (3) Martin Damm & Michael Kohlmann (CZE/GER) (WR 21)
Rankings taken from the current ATP list, not as shown on the DS. On the face of it, Ross & Jordan would appear to be slightly more evenly matched with their opponents.
Smidster: I've copied & pasted my original post & deleted it from the singles thread. You had some interesting thoughts on the R1 matches. Perhaps you'd care to repost them on here.
Flemski have played Bopanna/Qureshi on multiple occasions, all this year, with the series standing at 1-2. Rohan also partnered Ken on their way to victory in Jersey. Bopanna has also just had a decent week losing in the final of the Atlanta 250 with Vliegen of Belgium
Damm/Kohlman are a new partnership which could, hopefully, play into H&K's hands. Damm has a poor record against H/K (0-2) and has only once been on the winning side against a British partnership back in 2007. Kohlman's only appearance against H/K was also a defeat but did beat Hutch when he was with Huss
I see that the rankings in the OP are the ATP "Doubles Team Rankings" , which are this year's doubles race rankings, the Kohlmann 21 ranking actually being his one with his most regular partner, Nieminen, The Damm / Kohlmann partnership, being new, doesn't show up there.
Both Damm & Kohlmann do have pretty good doubles rankings individually though, WRs 34 & 35, a bit better than Hutchins & Kerr, WRs 56 & 49. But as Smidster says, Hutchins & Kerr have the advantage of being an established pair.
Would be a pretty decent win for either of our pairs, though certainly both have chances.
-- Edited by indiana on Sunday 25th of July 2010 07:17:23 PM
Tournament's attracted in the Brits this year, with Andy playing too at the last minute. Starting the North American hard court season off early, methinks.
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Today's scheduled matches are as follows (Tue. 7/27):
Match #1 Kevin Anderson (RSA) vs. Illya Marchenko (UKR): Match #2 Somdev Devvarman (IND) vs. Steve Johnson (USA) Match #3: Karol Beck (SVK) vs. Alejandro Falla (COL) Match #4 Tim Smyczek (USA) vs. Teymuraz Gabashvili (RUS) Match #5: Ross Hutchins (GBR) / Jordan Kerr (AUS) vs. Martin Damm / Michael Kohlmann (GER)
hutch/kerr 7-6(2) 0*-2 just switched too 7-6(2) 1*-1
hutch/kerr were being dominated early on, broken to love(i think), and couldnt win a point on opponents serve, faced double break point. but must have settled and havent looked back so far