HANGZHOU: NEWS & NOTES
*It’s the premiere for the Hangzhou Open in 2024 as the ATP World Tour makes its first visit. The event takes place at the Hangzhou Olympic Tennis Centre which features a center court with a retractable roof. The doubles field will be comprised of 16 teams this year as the season enters its final weeks.
*Lammons-Withrow are your top seeds this week as the Americans chase a spot in the Tour Finals. They begin the week ranked in the 8th and final spot. The American duo is just 57 points ahead of Koolhof-Mektic who are the next closest team in the race. Lammons-Withrow trail Heliovaara-Patten for the 7th spot by 325 points.
*We have already seen quite a few players partner swapping just about every week as some have already split from regular partners seemingly for the remainder of the year. One of those is Lloyd Glasspool who is pairing with Julian Cash this week. Cash-Glaspool will serve as the two seeds in their debut. It is of particular interest with Cash’s normal 2024 partner, Robert Galloway, also in this draw. He’ll pair with Ariel Behar for the first time. That pair is seeded third in the same half of the draw as Cash-Glasspool.
*Rounding out the seeds are Jamie Murray and John Peers who reprised their partnership in Winston-Salem. Murray has been searching for a partner after Michael Venus split off to pair with Neal Skupski this summer. Murray is Peers’ 13th different partner in 2024. If you’ll go way back to the beginning of the season, remember that Peers started a new partnership with Harri Heliovaara to open 2024. A poor run of results led to them splitting as the clay court season started. Murray-Peers are 2-2 so far on their current reunion tour.
*With all the partner swapping going on at this point in the season, it’s worth noting a few of the more “experienced” pairs in the draw.
Frantzen-Jebens
These guys jump out right away as the unseeded Germans will play their 61st match together this week and of course, made the Wimbledon quarterfinals as their best career result this summer. They’re just 33-27 overall, but have proven to be a tough out on all surfaces.
Bollipalli-Kadhe
One other pair to note this week in Hangzhou is this Indian duo. They’ve paired 35 times in the last two season with a 6-3 mark in 2024. That may not sound like much, but it’s a lot compared to many of the other duos this week. It’s also a big plus that those matches have all come since the end of August, including a Challenger final in Shanghai earlier this month and a semifinal run at the Ghangzhou Challenger-2 event last week. It’s a step up in level, but the chemistry could give them a small edge early.
SEEDS: ONE AND DONE WATCH (First Match Upset Watch)
(2)Cash-Glasspool
Barrientos-Mansouri are the round one opponents for this first time pairing. While Barrientos-Mansouri are short on experience themselves, their four matches have already shown this to be a formidable pair. They’re 2-2 with a win over Skupski-Venus and tight losses to Murray-Peers and Dodig-Pavlasek. Getting two players who have yet to play a set together gives them a realistic shot in this opener to at least grab a set and perhaps push for the outright upset.
(4)Murray-Peers
This is purely speculative as Murray-Peers even with just a few matches under their belt should have the better chemistry/chance against Nishioka-Uesugi. Both Nishioka and Uesugi have kind of the same modus operandi in that they are very competitive when paired up with solid doubles players, but how will they fare together as a one-off pairing? Uesugi is certainly at home during tournaments in Asian countries where he’s played a lot of his tennis, so that may help in this instance where he’s had some decent results at the Challenger level and been a competitive out in the rare instances at the ATP level.
DRAW PREVIEW
TOP HALF
The first quarter has some competitive teams outside of the top seeds Lammons-Withrow. I don’t see the Americans having an issue with a singles pair in Albot-Marterer, who are teaming up for the first time. That should put them in position to face the survivor between Frantzen-Jebens and Erler-Middlekoop. Erler-Middelkoop have only played twice together with both at this year’s US Open. They showed enough to expect them to at least be a competitive out for Frantzen-Jebens in round one. Frantzen-Jebens have not had a great time on hard courts in 2024 with a 3-5 record outdoors. Granted many of those matches were against very good teams, but it’s a surface that they played on for the first time this year after mainly playing clay and indoor hard courts the past two seasons. I’m still giving them the edge here and they’re the exact kind of duo that matches well in the power/serve category against Lammons-Withrow. The top seeds were outstanding during the North American hard court swing at 15-3, but don’t forget they were 7-7 on the surface prior in 2024 prior to that swing. They may have just needed that to get them right as they dominated on hard courts in 2023 with a 32-14 record that included a final in Zhuhai and semifinal in Tokyo late in the season.
The second quarter may be more interesting than it appears with Murray-Peers as the seeds. They’re still getting back into the swing of things as partners and if you’ve watched any of their matches, the thing that continues to stand out is that neither serve is particularly dominant. That means they’re going to be prone at times to letting teams back in matches they should have won, like their loss at the US Open to Goransson-Verbeek. I already covered their first round foes in Nishioka-Uesugi. I won’t be surprised if they struggle nor would I be shocked if they roll over the first time team. The other match in this section is intriguing with Hijikata-McDonald going against Bolipalli-Kadhe. Hijikata and McDonald do have a few matches together this summer in Hertogenbosch on grass. They had enough chemistry to show very competitive in a win and a loss, where both went to super tie breaks. Bolipalli-Kadhe were one of those teams I laid out earlier to watch out for as they have more experience together than many in this field. A super tie break could be in the cards with that duo playing six in the nine matches they’ve paired up for in 2024.
It’s far from certain that Lammons-Withrow make it through to the final in this half. While their form has been excellent the last two months, they’re on foreign soil now and they still tend to play tight matches. Of those 18 matches on hard courts this summer, ten went the distance and there were eleven of those that had at least one tie break. Frantzen-Jebens may be the main threat right away, but keep eyes on Hijikata-McDonald. As long as they stay engaged in the draw, they could be threats. Keep in mind however that McDonald lost in qualifying in singles, so he’s out and might already be thinking about his next tournament. Hijikata is in the main draw to start.
BOTTOM HALF
This third quarter is led by a first time tandem as the seeds in Behar-Galloway and then three teams short on ATP-level experience. Luckily for Behar and Galloway, they’re getting virgin blood in round one with Statham and Svajda pairing up for the first time. Those are also two guys who do not have a ton of doubles success under their belts this year. Statham has lost seven straight and eight of his last nine in doubles. Svajda has only played four doubles matches in 2024 with losses in three of four. Three of those four did at least go to a super tie break, so perhaps they make this interesting. The other match in this quadrant pits a pair of wild card entries in round one. The experience edge goes to Chinese pair Jung-Li, but they’ve played almost exclusively at the Futures level with an 11-11 mark on hard courts. The other Chinese wild cards are Te-Yunchaokete, who have not paired since 2023. They showed well in limited play with a Challenger final in Shanghai out of the three tournaments played. As such, they’re heavy favorites in that opener. For me, this quarter is all about whether or not Behar and Galloway find that instant chemistry. If they do, they’re both more well versed at this level than their counterparts and will be counted on to advance. If not, I’d look to Te-Yunchaokete as the dark horses in this section.
The final quarter should have a banger for an opener if (2)Cash-Glasspool show anything when they battle Barrientos-Mansouri. Barrientos-Mansouri have gone the distance in two of the four they played and I think that might be something to watch in round one as Cash-Glasspool try to feel each other out more on court. The opener opposite of them could be a determined battle between two pairs with a bit of experience. Nedunchezhiyan-Prasanth are only 9-12 together this season, but they do have 70 matches together during their careers. They square off with Aussies Bayldon-Fancutt who are 3-3 on the year and 7-5 since last year overall. They stepped up from Futures last year to play all Challengers in 2024 with their best showing coming at Guangzhou-2 last week where they made the semifinals. In this smaller field, it’s not much different from being in a Challenger field with some of these early matchups. I don’t expect that they’ll shrink from the challenge, but their Indian opponents are still large favorites. I’m fancying the winner between Cash-Glasspool and Barrientos-Mansouri to get through and I won’t be surprised if it’s Barrientos-Mansouri.
This bottom half is all about the two seeded pairs and which one, if either, can find that chemistry early on and parlay that into some wins. Talent-wise, they’re all a cut above the rest, but that doesn’t mean they’re shoe-ins to advance. I think Behar-Galloway get the slight edge for me with a better draw, but Cash-Glasspool have that British connection and could easily wind up as one of the teams to beat this week. The outsiders to watch for me are Barrientos-Mansouri.
THE PIG’S DRAW PROJECTION
Top Half SF: (1)Lammons-Withrow vs Hijikata-McDonald
Bottom Half SF: (3)Behar-Galloway vs Barrientos-Mansouri
PIGPIX
Lammons-Withrow
Behar-Galloway
DOUBLES TOURNAMENT PREVIEWS & PICKS 