Week 18 - ATP Masters 1000 - Mutua Madrid Open - Madrid, Spain (clay) - doubles

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Week 18 - ATP Masters 1000 - Mutua Madrid Open - Madrid, Spain (clay) - doubles

Spectator · All-time great

Quite a bit of pressure this week. Mr Murray is defending QF points (180). Mahut, PHH, Melo, and Tecau, his closest competitors, are, somewhat surprisingly, all defending 0 points. All of them could overtake if they won the tournament and Mr Murray went out in the first round.

-- Edited by Spectator on Saturday 30th of April 2016 06:08:13 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, 4 could pass Jamie in the rankings this week. The 'in running' starting positions with last year's Madrid points off, which as Spectator said only effects Jamie from the top 5 :

1. Murray : 7715 - 180 = 7535
2. Melo : 7410 - 0 = 7410
3. Mahut : 7310 - 0 = 7310
4. Herbert : 6965 - 45 ( 18th counter ) = 6920
5. Tecau : 6630 - 0 = 6630

Certainly if Herbert & Mahut win yet another Masters this year Mahut will go to WR 1 ( in some ways would be nice to see though rather not by usurping Jamie ). Melo would also definitely go back to WR 1 if he and Dodig won the title.

The top regular partnerships are all back together after some recent intermingling, and iff ( it's rather unpredictable doubles we're talking about here ) the results went by seeding, the SFs would be :

(1) Herbert & Mahut vs (3) Rojer & Tecau
(4) Dodig & Melo vs (2) Murray & Soares

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 9th of May 2016 12:22:45 AM

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

R2: Henri Kontinen & John Peers (FIN/AUS) (again!) CR 53 (41+12) vs (2) Jamie Murray & Bruno Soares CR 10 (1+9)

indiana · Tennis legend

Jamie & Bruno have lost the first set, held at the start of the second.

4-6 *1-0

With Melo & Dodig into the QF, albeit narrowly after a 10-8 MTB, the guys need a win today for any chance of Jamie retaining his WR 1 spot.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

R2: Henri Kontinen & John Peers (FIN/AUS) CR 53 (41+12) defeated (2) Jamie Murray & Bruno Soares CR 10 (1+9) by 6-4 7-6(4) bleh

Spectator · All-time great

Hmm. Melo won, so I think he's now back to number one. Life now gets even more interesting, though, as Mahut, Herbert and Tecau all also won. It would, therefore, be feasible for Mahut also to pass Mr Murray if he and PHH reach the SF ... or both Mahut and PHH if they win the SF ... or Mahut and Rojer if the former +PHH reach the SF and Rojer/Tecau beat them and win the tournament.

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

Doubles: Name in a hat an pull one out. Hey Presto Mr X is number 1

indiana · Tennis legend

The Bryans kept getting their names pulled out for years, must be lucky sods

Spectator · All-time great

Yes, 438 weeks or so - what's that ... 8 1/2 years? Either very lucky or maybe they put superglue on the tickets with their names ....

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

The Bryans being a team the majority of doubles players swap partners every other year. No surprise that the most successful pairings stick together. Woodies, Williams, Bryans.

Simple fact Doubles is random. Not entirely but the element of skill is debatable. Much easier to become a top 10 doubles players than a top 100 singles.

Spectator · All-time great

Tecau and Rojer beat Mahut and PHH (concern about injury for the latter); Bopanna and Mergea beat Dodig and Melo. This sets up, for Mr Murray, the worst-case scenario. He will be passed by both Melo and Mahut, and, should Tecau and Rojer win the title, also by Tecau.

TMH · Futures qualifying

Jaggy1876 wrote:
The Bryans being a team the majority of doubles players swap partners every other year. No surprise that the most successful pairings stick together. Woodies, Williams, Bryans.

Simple fact Doubles is random. Not entirely but the element of skill is debatable. Much easier to become a top 10 doubles players than a top 100 singles.

You're a weak troll.

indiana · Tennis legend

Spectator wrote:
Tecau and Rojer beat Mahut and PHH (concern about injury for the latter); Bopanna and Mergea beat Dodig and Melo. This sets up, for Mr Murray, the worst-case scenario. He will be passed by both Melo and Mahut, and, should Tecau and Rojer win the title, also by Tecau.

Rather depends on what term you want to look at things and how bothered you are as to precise position as against how far off WR 1 in points.

Melo and Mahut are as you say already ahead of Jamie. Them both losing in the SF now stops either of them stretching further ahead. Yes Tecau can also go ahead of Jamie ( and Rojer get very close ), but Jamie will come out of Madrid still only 235 points behind Melo, the reinstated WR 1.

Looking bit further ahead Mahut, backed up by Herbert, looked the biggest danger, with how they've started this year so again them losing in the SF and not getting a fourth successive Masters title is probably no bad thing. Hope Herbert be OK though in interests of competition.

-- Edited by indiana on Saturday 7th of May 2016 08:19:46 PM

Spectator · All-time great

Good point. I was thinking more in terms of numbers of players ahead of him than of their distance ahead ... but for the long term, you're quite right, this is far from the worst-case scenario.