The Top ATP Tennis Doubles Pairs

Tennis doubles is different from tennis singles. Are you familiar with the best players these days?

As most already know, tennis can be a single or doubles game. Each branch has its own stars; in fact, many doubles tennis aren’t the best singles players. Learn about the best current duos in our post today.

The ATP tennis doubles ranking

Before reading our list of the most powerful duos worldwide in doubles tennis, we first want to mention that the world ranking is based off individual standings. As a result, while one player of a doubles team might reach the top spot, the other might very well rank 5th.

Just like the ATP singles rankings, the doubles rankings aim to evaluate players based on their most recent results. Thus, the ranking analyzes the players’ last 52 weeks in the competition, which sums up an entire year.

When players win a tournament, they win a certain amount of points that add to their score until the next edition of the same tournament. If they win the tournament again the following year, they retain those points. On the other hand, if they can’t hold on to their title, the points go to another player or pair.

The amount of points that players can win from tournaments depends on the tournament level among other factors. In the case of doubles pairs, each player wins the same number of points but they do so as an individual.

The best players in the world: tennis doubles

Now that we’re all on the same page in terms of the ranking, we can go ahead and list off the best doubles pairs in the world.

1. Juan Sebastián Cabal and Robert Farah

Both players hail from Colombia and share the first spot on the international ranking thanks to their recent achievements, which include winning at Wimbledon. Before their big feat, they’ve played together in the 2018 Australian Open Finals. Cabal also reached the 2011 French Open Finals alongside Argentinian Eduardo Schwank.

At 32, Farah is one year younger than Cabal in addition to having one less ATP doubles title, (15 and 16 titles respectively). But the pair reached the top on July 2019 and are considered to be the best Colombian players in tennis history.

2. Mike and Bob Bryan, one of the best tennis pairs ever

The famous Bryan brothers are already a legend in Men’s Doubles. Despite being 41 years old, Mike still maintains his number 3 international ranking — Cabal and Farah take up the first two– while Bob is 31st.

Since 2003 to 2018, these US tennis stars– seen in the featured image– dominated Doubles Tennis. They won 18 Grand Slams, 5 ATP World Tour Finals and a gold Olympic medal in the 2012 London games. Mike was actually first in the ranking until very recently in July 2019.

But Bob has two Grand Slams less than his twin brother as he spent many months off the court during 2018 due to a hip problem, which will require surgery at the end of this year.

3. Lukazs Kubot and Marcelo Melo

Polish tennis player is 37 while Brazilian Melo is two years his junior. They rank 4th and 5th, respectively, in ATP’s current standings.

Kubot has won two Grand Slam titles: he won the 2014 Australian Open alongside Robert Lindstedt and in 2017 at Wimbledon with Melo. The pair also reached the 2018 US Open.

Meanwhile, Melo won the French Open in 2015 with Ivan Dodig, beating the Bryan brothers in the Finals. And as mentioned above, he won Wimbledon in 2017 with Kubot. He also played in the Finals with Dodig in the 2013 Wimbledon Championships.

Together, these tennis stars have won 11 ATP titles since 2016. Their achievements have pushed them up to the higher spots of the prestigious ranking.

Other tennis doubles: players worth mentioning

Aside from the three pairs above, other outstanding pairs include Nicolas Mahut (France, ranking number 6) and Roger Vasselin (who played alongside Mahut in the Wimbledon Finals this year) or Pierre-Hughes Herbert (who’s already won 4 Grand Slams and ranked 21).

Lastly, Raven Klaasen (South Africa, ranking number 7) and Michael Venus (Australia, number 8) are another pair that’s won at least ATP titles.

To wrap up, stars in professional doubles are quite different from the ones in singles. We would also like to highlight that all of the tennis players we discussed today, minus Herbert, are over 30 years old. In doubles tennis, the players divide the distances on the court but both must shine in their techniques and tactics.