Top Singles Stars Flood Monte-Carlo Doubles Draw

The doubles field at this week’s Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters is not only stacked with all the top doubles players on the ATP World Tour, but also many of the world’s best singles players.

Stan Wawrinka prevailed in his first-round match with Fabio Fognini on Sunday by ousting the veteran team of Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor 6-4, 7-6(2). Their path won’t get any easier as second seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut await in the next round.

Two-time Monte-Carlo singles champion Novak Djokovic teams up with fellow Serbian Viktor Troicki and will open against Gilles Muller and Gilles Simon. Djokovic/Troicki ousted Herbert/Mahut en route to a quarter-final finish last month at the BNP Paribas Open. Should they win their first match in Monte-Carlo, they’ll have another high-profile battle on their hands against top seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers.

In a battle of doubles teams that pair youth and experience, brothers Mischa Zverev and Alexander Zverev will take on Philipp Kohlschreiber and Dominic Thiem. The winner of that match will move on to play fourth seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo. 

Other attractive first-round doubles matches include Marin Cilic and Philipp Petzschner squaring off against Florin Mergea and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, wild cards Grigor Dimitrov and Nenad Zimonjic facing French duo Benoit Paire and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, and Tommy Haas and Treat Huey taking on another French duo in Julien Benneteau and Lucas Pouille.