Tsitsipas To Play Wimbledon Doubles With Brother
Third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas will be aiming to win a first singles Grand Slam title at Wimbledon this year. However, the Roland Garros finalist will not only take to the court in the singles at SW19, he will also team with his brother Petros Tsitsipas in the doubles.
The Greek pair overcame Kevin Krawietz and Horia Tecau in the first round at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters in April, and played together at the Australian Open (l. to McDonald/Paul). This will be their eighth tournament of the season together, and they will face Jaume Munar and Cameron Norrie in the first round.
The World No. 4 will be in for a busy tournament if he advances to the latter stages in both draws, because Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam where doubles is played on a best-of-five-sets format.
Two other top 20 singles players will also be in action. Australian Alex de Minaur, who this week is at a career-high No. 18 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, will partner countryman Matt Reid, and they will play British team Luke Johnson and Anton Matusevich. Casper Ruud, the 12th seed in singles, will partner Andre Goransson. The Norwegian-Swedish tandem takes on Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez.
Lloyd Harris, No. 51 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, will play with World No. 67 Alexei Popyrin, and they will face Americans Austin Krajicek and Tennys Sandgren.
The top seeds are Croatian pair Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic, who are in red-hot form ahead of Wimbledon after winning their seventh tour-level title of the season at the Viking International Eastbourne on Friday. Mektic and Pavic have lifted three ATP Masters 1000 titles this year, but missed Roland Garros.
They will begin against Jonathan Erlich and Andrei Vasilevski, while second seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut will be targeting a third straight title after winning Roland Garros and the cinch Championships in London. The French tandem won the Wimbledon crown in 2016 and plays Facundo Bagnis and Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the first round.
Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo, who reunited at Roland Garros this year (l . to Monroe/Tiafoe), have collected 15 tour-level titles together, including Wimbledon in 2017. The Polish-Brazilian team will join forces for a second time this season in London, and take on 2012 champion Frederik Nielsen and Franko Skugor.