{"id":70864,"date":"2024-07-26T13:00:35","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T17:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=70864"},"modified":"2024-07-26T13:55:47","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T17:55:47","slug":"paris-olympics-day-1-mens-doubles-predictions-nadal-alcaraz-gonzalez-molteni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2024\/07\/26\/paris-olympics-day-1-mens-doubles-predictions-nadal-alcaraz-gonzalez-molteni\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris Olympics Day 1 Men’s Doubles Predictions Including Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz vs Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day 1 of the Paris Olympics tennis tournament is Saturday, and it kicks off the men’s and women’s singles and doubles events. In addition to our regular predictions of all singles matches, as a special treat for you us at LastWordOnTennis will be sharing predictions for the Olympics doubles matches. The highlight of Day 1 in Men’s Doubles will be Rafael Nadal’s return to the Parisian clay–possibly for the final time. We also predict half of the day’s matches in a separate article<\/a>. Predicting these matches are Damian Kust, Jim Smith, and Yesh Ginsburg. Who do you think will advance? (Note that in Olympic doubles, a third set is a match tiebreak–first team to ten points wins.)<\/p>\n

As a special for the Olympics, we will also be predicting all of the day’s other matches, both singles and doubles. We will link to our other Olympic predictions at the bottom of the article. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

Paris Olympics Day 1 Men’s Doubles Predictions<\/h2>\n

Rohan Bopanna and Sriram Balaji (India) vs Fabien Reboul and Edouard Roger-Vasselin (France)<\/h4>\n

Damian:<\/em>
\nBopanna had some Indian partners to choose from, but neither of them has a lot of experience at the top-level. In their first appearance after six years, he and Balaji were smashed off the court by Schnaitter\/Wallner in Hamburg. Reboul\/Roger-Vasselin did much better in that event despite playing with each other for the first time.
\nPrediction: Reboul and Roger-Vasselin in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

Jim:<\/em>
\nThis has the makings of an interesting match. But one does wonder if Sriram Balaji might end up proving to be the weak link. The 34-year-old has spent his career on the fringes of the ATP Tour in doubles and does not have much of a record to speak of in singles. Ravi Bopanna remains world\u2019s best, but he may need a more effective partner than Balaji.
\nPrediction: Reboul and Roger-Vasselin in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

Yesh:<\/em>
\nBopanna is a great doubles player who finally just claimed his first Major title. It\u2019s the Olympics, so he needed a countryman for this event, but Balaji should be enough to get out of this round, at least.
\nPrediction: Bopanna and Balaji in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

[tgdcta items=”1″ id=”180848″]<\/p>\n

Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori (Italy) vs Pablo Carreno Busta and Marcel Granollers (Spain)<\/h4>\n

Damian:<\/em>
\nBolelli\/Vavassori made the final at Roland Garros earlier this year and are one of the few top-quality pairings here who compete with each other on a regular basis. Granollers is still at the very top of the sport, but it\u2019s just tough to see him carrying Carreno Busta to the win here in the current state of the former singles World No. 10\u2019s career.
\nPrediction: Bolelli and Vavassori in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

Jim:<\/em>
\nThe Italians are good enough to be competitive here. But are they good enough to beat Marcel Granollers and Pablo Carreno Busta? Probably not. Carreno Busta is not the player he was, but Granollers is currently ranked as World #1 for a reason–and without a Grand Slam title to his name will surely be desperate to write his name into the history books.
\nPrediction: Carreno Busta and Granollers in 3<\/em><\/p>\n

Yesh:<\/em>
\nThe Italians are the top seed at this event, but it\u2019s not at all clear that they\u2019re the favorites. Granollers is probably at the end of his career, but he\u2019s still got strong doubles skills. This might be a closer-than-expected match.
\nPrediction: Bolelli and Vavassori in 3<\/em><\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a>