Doubles Battles Come Down To London

For the second consecutive year, fans will celebrate a new year-end No. 1 doubles team and doubles player on the ATP World Tour. And it will all come down to the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, which starts Sunday at The O2 in London.

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Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, currently No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Team Rankings, control their fate in both races. The Frenchmen can clinch the team year-end No. 1 with their first Barclays ATP World Tour Finals title.

Barclays ATP World Tour Finals Points By Round – Final Year-End Doubles Ranking Points

The individual year-end No. 1 race is much simpler: Herbert/Mahut need to win only one round-robin match for the 34-year-old Mahut to secure year-end No. 1. Should Herbert/Mahut go 0-3 during round-robin play, Jamie Murray/Bruno Soares need to go undefeated in round-robin play and win the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals title for Soares to pass Mahut.

Herbert/Mahut, in London for the second time, will try to finish the season like they started. They won the year’s first three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles in Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo and captured the ATP World Tour 500 event at The Queen’s Club in June. But they haven’t celebrated a Sunday victory since July, when they won their first Wimbledon title.

Herbert/Mahut will be more familiar with The O2 this season. They went 1-2 during round-robin play last year. They’ve also played well indoors this season, reaching the final at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris last Sunday (l. to Kontinen/Peers).

Barclays ATP World Tour Finals Points By Round – Final Year-End Doubles Ranking Points

Herbert/Mahut have been drawn in Group Fleming/McEnroe and boast a winning FedEx ATP Head2Head record this season against two of their three round-robin foes: Fourth seeds Marc Lopez/Feliciano Lopez (1-1); fifth seeds Henri Kontinen/John Peers (3-1); and seventh seeds Raven Klaasen/Rajeev Ram (1-0).

“We know all the teams quite well. The teams are all very good and all the matches will be very tight. We’ll have to be up to par,” Herbert said last Sunday in Paris.

Herbert/Mahut, with 7,825 Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings points, will try to hold off second seeds Murray/Soares, who are 575 points behind the top seeds. With 1,500 points up for grabs in London, Murray/Soares could cap off an impressive debut season together by finishing World No. 1.

Murray/Soares will lead the Group Edberg/Jarryd, which includes two teams very familiar with the season finale and one team making its debut. Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan will be going for their fifth Barclays ATP World Tour title in their 14^th appearance. Murray/Soares lost their only 2016 meeting against the Bryans (Rome).

The Briton/Brazilian pairing have captured three titles this season, including two of the biggest hard-court crowns, the Australian Open and the US Open. Murray/Soares will also have some London experience to use at The O2. Murray played at the season finale last season with then partner John Peers, going 1-2 in round-robin play.

Herbert/Mahut and Murray/Soares also split their two 2016 meetings. The Frenchmen won the first match-up, in the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters final. But Murray/Soares earned revenge during the US Open semi-finals. Ivan Dodig/Marcelo Melo will be making their fourth appearance at the finale. Their best result came in 2014 when they reached the final (l. to Bryan/Bryan). The Croatian/Brazilian team split their two meetings with Murray/Soares this season. Debutants Treat Huey/Max Mirnyi will play Murray/Soares for the first time this year in London.

All of this unknown is a relative change compared to past years in the ATP World Tour doubles world. Last season marked just the first time since 2008 that the Bryans hadn’t concluded a season as the year-end No. 1 doubles team. The Americans have celebrated that status 10 times overall – 2003, 2005-07, 09-14.

Marcelo Melo finished 2015 as the year-end No. 1 doubles player, and Horia Tecau and Jean-Julien Rojer ended the season as the 2015 year-end No. 1 doubles team after winning the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.