2024 Indian Wells ATP/WTA Doubles Talk

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ey039524

Hall of Fame
First round matchup: Bopanna/Ebden vs. Gille/Vliegen. This is a tough pairing for a first round match.

Agree w/ the teams mentioned above. They're going to be tough. Also Hurkacz/Griekspoor is a tough team. They drew the #2 seeds Krajicek/Dodig first round.

Can't wait to see some top level dubs in person. What I've noticed in the past years, is how much room the top teams take up at the net. They make the possibility of passing very small.
 
E

ey039524

Hall of Fame
Krajicek/dodig make it through in a TB. That was a bad first rd matchup. They're practicing vs bopanna/ebden today. Hope to catch it in person.
 
Aussie Darcy

Aussie Darcy

Bionic Poster
Big tournament on both the mens and women's side with the #1 rankings in play.

On the men's side, Bopanna the current #1 as the AO champ, he's in contention to remain number #1 but has challenges from Austin Krajicek (French Open champ) and Rajeev Ram (US Open champ).

On the women's side, Mertens is the current #1 as the AO champ. Wiki seems to say that it's between Mertens and Storm Hunter for the #1 but I actually think it's Mertens partner Hsieh who is in pole position for #1. Hsieh of course holds 3 of the 4 slams but all with different partners.
 
nounforcederrors

nounforcederrors

Hall of Fame
I have a little cash on Kato/Sutjiadi to win their R1 over Danilina/Zhang, but I think Hsieh/Mertens will take R2.
Interesting to see that each of the established men pairings so far, R1, went to a match tiebreak against solid singles duos, winning. No straight sets wins yet by usuals.
 
E

ey039524

Hall of Fame
I was able to see most of the top teams practice yesterday, except for ram/Salisbury, who cancelled their practice last minute. Bopanna/ebden and dodig/Krajicek could've been a sneak peak of the final. Laughable how few fans were watching. Someone from Krajicek's hometown said they were down 4-7 in the match TB, and rallied to win. Hurkacz is no joke in dubs.
nUy4oKl.jpg


The draw is tough on the men's side, starting w round 1. Eubanks/Shelton as a 1st round opponent is going to be difficult for zeballos/granollers.

It is always something to see in person how fast the game is. Their timing is so on point, it has to be at the speed the ball is moving.

Also, very complex patterns w a lot of i formation.

My teenage son is getting some good ideas for how to practice at a top level.

Side note: Michael Venus was practicing serves, missed a few in a row, complained to his coach about how he "didn't understand" something, threw his racquet across the court, which skidded to the first row, just a few seats from us. Weird reaction, coming from a veteran player. His serves were huge, BTW. I don't know who he and Jamie Murray drew, but I would bet they're going to struggle.
 
AM75

AM75

Hall of Fame
I‘ve seen it on insta, but the doubles team of Doumbia/Reboul, current Nr 7 on the ATP doubles race were not granted direct entry and entered the tournament as alternates, because deMinaur and Popyrin withdrew. How it is even possible that deMinaur who is doubles Nr 174 and Popyrin who‘s not even in doubles top 500 get the entry and doubles Nr 30 & 31 - not?
 
E

ey039524

Hall of Fame
Taylor Townsend/Haddad Maia just crushed Baptiste/Ngounoue, 3 and 0. Going to watch some more dubs practice tonight.

My son has been asking the lefties for advice:
Zeballos: serve, serve, serve (in Spanish);
Townsend: don't be afraid to get hit;
Bob Bryan: said he'd be back after he filmed a tiktok, came back and asked my son what side he played, then told him to hug the alley to open up his forehand, and to open up the dtl shot into the alley. He actually put thought into it. Legend!
 
E

ey039524

Hall of Fame
Stadium 6 was packed to see Shelton/eubanks v granollers/zeballos. I saw the latter warm up and they looked decent, but not as impressive as the other top teams. I thought the servebot team might trouble them. The crowd was buzzing.

I was wrong. Shelton got broken to start, then eubanks. Veterans went up 4-0, and Shelton looked like he was going to get broken again, but ended up holding on deciding point. Eubanks holds and they avoid a bread stick.

Second set was tighter w no breaks until the end. Shelton/eubanks stopped spraying the FH. The old guys come through w steady play and veteran strategy. Crowd was dejected.

Watched the night match w skupski/Gonzalez vs peers/musetti. Thought that skupski/Gonzalez were going to roll through this one easily, since musetti just went 3 long sets w shapo. They controlled the first set, as expected. Second set, skupski/Gonzalez play a loose service game mid set and lose it. Match TB: musetti awakens, monster returns/passing shots off both wings (ridiculous OHBH) and surprisingly aggressive net play. They win easily 10-5 over one of the stronger teams in the draw. Musetti was the deciding factor, after I thought he would be the weakest player on the court. I stand corrected and am hopeful he is going to see a rise in the rankings after witnessing his potential.
 
E

ey039524

Hall of Fame
BenC said:
so strange seeing Joran Vliegen using an old Prince racquet
Click to expand...
Granollers uses an o port. Lucas Pouille on the singles side.

I switched from Wilson to Prince and don't regret it at all. Prince makes good old school box beams that are conducive to net play.
AM75 said:
I‘ve seen it on insta, but the doubles team of Doumbia/Reboul, current Nr 7 on the ATP doubles race were not granted direct entry and entered the tournament as alternates, because deMinaur and Popyrin withdrew. How it is even possible that deMinaur who is doubles Nr 174 and Popyrin who‘s not even in doubles top 500 get the entry and doubles Nr 30 & 31 - not?
Click to expand...
ADM got them in bc the singles ranking counts for dubs.

DutchUncle said:
Doumbia/Reboul have been a hot team this season. They'll give Ram/Salisbury some trouble.
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Good call. Ram/Salisbury served for the 1st set and got broken, but recovered in the TB.

And the top seeds are out. Gille/vliegen are not a proper 1st round matchup for the #1 seeds.

Also molteini/Gonzalez are ousted by a team of American WCs.
 
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spystud

spystud

Talk Tennis Guru
The first-ever BNP Paribas Open Mixed Doubles Invitational will be held Wednesday, March 13 through Friday, March 15 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden alongside main draw play of the ATP and WTA 1000 tournament. The eight-team event will be a knockout format and offer $150,000 in total prize money.

The following teams are confirmed to participate in the inaugural BNP Paribas Open Mixed Doubles Invitational:

  • Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Mate Pavic
  • Daria Saville and John Peers
  • Taylor Townsend and Jackson Withrow
  • Katerina Siniakova and Tomas Machac
  • Storm Hunter and Matthew Ebden
  • Ena Shibahara and Joe Salisbury
  • Caroline Garcia and Edouard Roger-Vasselin
  • Desirae Krawczyk and Andrew Harris
Click to expand...
 
Aussie Darcy

Aussie Darcy

Bionic Poster
Muhammed/Shibihara having a good run. After a huge win in the 2R over the #2 seeds and USO champs Dabrowski/Routliffe, they then knock off the #5 seeds Gauff/Pegula to make the SF.

They'll face #3 Hunter/Siniakova for a spot in the final.

A win by Hunter/Siniakova and a loss by Hsieh/Mertens would see Hunter return to #1.
 
BenC

BenC

Hall of Fame
weird note that may amuse only me - both Kichenok sisters are playing right now but in different tournaments (IW, ITF Charleston)
 
Mark-Touch

Mark-Touch

Legend
Hsieh-Mertens just cruised to another easy win, this time over Schuurs-Stefani.
First time seeing Schuurs play. I wasn't sure if Stefani snuck in a mixed doubles partner. ;)

I don't think Hsieh could survive a match without her Kleenex tissues. :)
 
BenC

BenC

Hall of Fame
Schuurs has great reflexes at the net and is pretty strong doubles player, and I'm surprised she's only made it as far as 1 GS doubles semifinal. Hsieh-Mertens must have been playing well to beat them so quickly.

Although I guess Mertens didn't expend much energy in her singles loss to Coco earlier. Ouch.
 
Mark-Touch

Mark-Touch

Legend
BenC said:
Schuurs has great reflexes at the net and is pretty strong doubles player, and I'm surprised she's only made it as far as 1 GS doubles semifinal. Hsieh-Mertens must have been playing well to beat them so quickly.

Although I guess Mertens didn't expend much energy in her singles loss to Coco earlier. Ouch.
Click to expand...
I think overall Mertens will be very happy with her results so far.
She'll be picking up very handsome checks for both her singles and doubles performances.
 
BenC

BenC

Hall of Fame
Mark-Touch said:
I think overall Mertens will be very happy with her results so far.
She'll be picking up very handsome checks for both her singles and doubles performances.
Click to expand...
no doubt. I'm just perplexed that she's eaten a bagel set in each of the last 3 times she's faced Coco.

watching the highlights - at 2-0 Schuurs hit a tweener on a full sprint and recovers to hit dtl winner a few shots later. Looks like they got beaten pretty soundly otherwise.
 
E

ey039524

Hall of Fame
Mark-Touch said:
Hsieh-Mertens just cruised to another easy win, this time over Schuurs-Stefani.
First time seeing Schuurs play. I wasn't sure if Stefani snuck in a mixed doubles partner. ;)

I don't think Hsieh could survive a match without her Kleenex tissues. :)
Click to expand...
Schuurs was Desirae Krawczyk's partner. They split this year for some reason. Desi now plays w/ Caroline Dolehide, another American.
 
Mark-Touch

Mark-Touch

Legend
BenC said:
no doubt. I'm just perplexed that she's eaten a bagel set in each of the last 3 times she's faced Coco.

watching the highlights - at 2-0 Schuurs hit a tweener on a full sprint and recovers to hit dtl winner a few shots later. Looks like they got beaten pretty soundly otherwise.
Click to expand...

Mertens is a very solid player no doubt in singles (she actually does better in doubles) but she's not in Gauff's league most of the time.
If Gauff is having a bad day and Mertens is on fire, she could take Gauff down.
She actually fed Gauff a bagel the first time they played at Eastbourne.

Yes that tweener point was really something else. The S's were scrambling for pretty much the entire point until Schuurs hit the final winner.
It was really an exciting match to watch in terms of entertainment value/shot making. But after a few games it was quite clear who was in the driver's seat.
It was only due to unfocused play in the second by the Hsieh team that the score was so close.

Hsieh made a number of uncharacteristic errors in the match (along with her regular magician's magic) .
One ball came back to her where she was standing a couple of feet behind the net, slowly descending from high above.
So she had all the time in the world to hit it. And when she finally did, she smashed it way out of court behind the baseline! :)
 
E

ey039524

Hall of Fame
Stradivarius said:
I am totally into watching doubles nowadays, short but creative points.
Click to expand...
We were camped out in stadium 6 to see the Shelton/eubanks doubles match, but we got there early and watched the leyla Fernandez/Diane Parry match.

After that long match, it was night/day how exciting the action was when the doubles started. The crowd was subdued and stoic during the singles, but energized and electric after the first few points of doubles.
 
Aussie Darcy

Aussie Darcy

Bionic Poster
#1 Hsieh/Mertens v #3 Hunter/Siniakova for the Indian Wells ladies doubles title.

Number 1 ranking is at stake. Between Hsieh and Storm Hunter.
 
Aussie Darcy

Aussie Darcy

Bionic Poster
BenC said:
Perez had a bad day at the office.
Click to expand...
Happens a fair bit. They're a great team at going deep (look at how many Finals they've made together) but just can't handle the big matches.

As a pair in the last 20 months they've gone:
2022:
Canadian 1000 runner up
Cincinnati 1000 runner up
Cleveland 250 champs
Tokyo 500 runner up

2023:
Texas 250 runner up
Eastbourne 500 runner up
Cincinnati 1000 runner up
Cleveland 250 runner up
WTA Finals runner up

2024:
Linz 500 runner up
Dubai 1000 runner up
San Diego 500 champs

12 finals (4 which were Masters 1000 and the WTA Finals) with just 2 titles.

They've also made the 2022 Wimbledon QF, 2022 US Open SF and 2023 French Open SF. They all went 3 sets but they lost them all.
 
M

Moose Malloy

G.O.A.T.
mixed doubles final today on Stadium 1(for some reason its not listed on the order of play page)

bnpparibasopen.com

BNP Paribas Open Mixed Doubles Invitational

The first-ever BNP Paribas Open Mixed Doubles Invitational debuted during the second week of the 2024 BNP Paribas Open. The eight-team event featured a knockout
bnpparibasopen.com bnpparibasopen.com

Stadium 1 | Starting at 11:00a
S. Hunter / M. Ebden vs. C. Garcia / E. Roger-Vasselin

Results - Thursday, March 14​

S. Hunter / M. Ebden def. T. Townsend / J. Withrow 6-4, 5-7, 10-3
C. Garcia / E. Roger-Vasselin def. D. Saville / J. Peers 6-3, 6-7(6), 10-8

don't see highlights posted anywhere
 
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