Top combinations for Chennai Open

Three of the world’s top 20 tennis singles players along with some of the leading doubles specialists will figure in the doubles main draw of the ATP Chennai Open to be held here from Jan 5 to 11. 

Singles defending champion and world no.4 Stan Wawrinka, Roberto Bautista Agut, Feliciano Lopez, Max Mirnyi, Ivan Dogic, Mate Pavic, Andre Bagemann, Robin Haase, Johan Brunstrom, Nicholas Monroe, Oliver Marach and Michael Venus are among the top players in the doubles draw, the organisers announced on Monday.

In 2013, Wawrinka partnered Frenchman Benoit Paire to lift the tournament’s doubles title in a match that lasted less than an hour. World no.15 Bautista Agut has had a good run in the Chennai Open. As an unseeded player he reached his first ATP World Tour final in 2013 and this year, he is coming back after a successful season that won him ATP’s Most Improved Player of the Year Award.

World No.14 Lopez, who is ranked 52 in doubles, will partner Max Mirnyi, a specialized in the paired event and who is No.47. The experienced pair made it to the finals of the Abierto Mexicano Telcel tournament in Acapulco. Mirnyi has won 48 doubles career titles, became a doubles specialist and attained a career-high ranking of 18 in singles in August 2003. Nicknamed ‘the beast’, Mirnyi won the doubles title here partnering Olivier Delaitre in 1998.

Lopez will begin his 2015 season here after playing an impressive 2014 when he successfully defended his AEGON International title and became the first player since 2001 to reach consecutive grass-court finals prior to Wimbledon. He also reached the finals of ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Rome with Robin Haase.

Doubles world no.12 Ivan Dodig will reunite with 56th ranked Mate Pavic. Along with Marcelo Melo, Dodig reached the finals of four tournaments in 2014. In 2013, Dodig and Pavic won the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 in Shanghai. Pavic is an Aircel Chennai Open doubles finalist from last year.

Germany’s Andre Begemann and Netherlands Robin Haase will come together yet another time and use their winning experience from Gstaad this year. The pair also did well at the French Open where they reached the third round. Defending his title, which he won with Frederik Nielsen here last year, Doubles World No.55 Johan Brunstromis is back with a new partner in world no. 65 Nicholas Monroe. Oliver Marach, a doubles world no.67, who won the Royal Guard Open, Chile 2014 (with Florin Mergea) will get together with No.62, New Zealand’s Michael Venus in another impressive combination.

The organisers recently announced the granting of doubles wild cards to India’s top players Mahesh Bhupathi, Saketh Myneni, Sriram Balaji and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan. Thus far, 12 of the 16 doubles teams have been finalised.