Wimbledon Doubles Preview: Bryan Brothers Seek to Repeat as Champs

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Wimbledon Doubles Preview: Bryan Brothers Seek to Repeat as Champs

By Erik Gudris

Photo Credit: Getty Images

(June 24th, 2012) While the singles competition will dominate most of the attention at this year's Wimbledon, there's quite a bit of intrigue happening in both the Gentlemen's and Ladies' Doubles events including the return of one of the most formidable teams in recent memory.

On the men's side, No. 1 seeds Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor hope to back up their run to the title at Roland Garros with a Wimbledon title. Nestor is seeking his third Wimbledon title overall while Mirnyi has only been to the finals once back in 2003. Their biggest early challenge could be a possible quarterfinal clash against No. 5 seeds and last year's finalists Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau.

No. 2 seeds Bob and Mike Bryan enter as the defending champions, but there's a bit of question mark surrounding the brothers as they enter the fortnight. After losing in the finals of both Melbourne and Paris, the Bryans also along the way lost their No. 1 ranking that they had held for 90 weeks. Still, it's hard not to see the Bryans making a return trip to the finals where they will seek their third Wimbledon title.

The top seeds are rounded out by the Polish team of No. 3 seeds Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski and No. 4 seeds and Melbourne champions Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek who could set up a possibly volatile quarterfinal meeting against No. 7 seeds Rohan Bopanna and Mahesh Bhupathi. Paes, Bhupathi and Bopanna are all involved in the recent controversy still raging in India about Bopanna and Bhupathi being selected as a doubles team for the Summer Games despite the objections of Paes.

For the complete Men's Doubles Draw, go here.

On the ladies' side, Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond may be the No. 1 seeds, but after a flying start to the year, the team has been on a bit of slide recently having lost in the first round of Roland Garros and just yesterday losing in the finals of Eastbourne after Huber had to retire from the match due to a thigh injury. Though it's unclear how much the injury will affect Huber, one can't count out this team who share a combined three Wimbledon titles between them.

The team many consider to be the favorite are the No. 2 seeds Italy's Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci who reached the finals of Melbourne, won Roland Garros and just won their seventh title of the year at Den Bosch this weekend. With the longest winning streak of any women's team since 2000, "VinRani" as they are called may be the team to beat although neither woman has gotten past the third round of Wimbledon in their careers.

The top seeds are rounded out by No. 3 seeds and defending champions Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik and No. 4 seeds Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova who are the second pick of many to take the title.

Other teams to watch for include No. 14 seeds Gisela Dulko and Paola Suarez and the return to action of the Williams Sisters who have won Wimbledon four times and last competed as a team back in 2010 when they lost in the quarterfinals. The Williams Sisters have won 12 Grand Slam doubles titles overall, placing them 5th on the all-time list of players in the Open Era behind Gigi Fernandez (17), Natasha Zvereva (18), Pam Shriver (21) and Martina Navratilova (31).

For the complete Women's Doubles Draw, go here.