Doubles Take: Previewing the men's draw in Melbourne

After capturing the men’s doubles title at the Australian Open last year and completing the career Grand Slam, it seemed as if Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert were poised to dominate the 2019 season. Instead, it was Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah that finished the year on top after winning their first two majors at Wimbledon and the US Open.

To say it’s been an eventful past three months for both of those teams would be an understatement.

After taking a break for a good portion of the year as Herbert focused on his singles game, the French pair reunited toward the end of 2019 to win the Paris Masters and the ATP Finals. They’ve returned to Melbourne as not only the defending champions, but also as the top seeds.

Meanwhile, Farah and Cabal won’t be able to extend their winning streak at the majors as Farah has been sidelined after testing positive for a banned substance. Cabal is partnering the young Spaniard Jaume Munar, known more for his burgeoning singles game.

The second seeds are Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo, followed by last year’s French Open champs, Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies, who were knocked out in the very first round by Kazakh's Alexander Bublik and Mikhail Kukushkin. Other major champions will be making a fresh start in Melbourne with new partners.

John Peers and Henri Kontinen were at or near the top of the men’s game the past few years, with the 2017 Aussie title and runner-up finish last year among the highlights. This year, Peers is teamed up with Michael Venus, prompting Raven Klaasen—Venus’ partner the past couple of seasons—to play with Oliver Marach.

Those two teams are seeded seventh and ninth, respectively, while Kontinen is unseeded as he partners Jan-Lennard Struff, a former doubles semifinalist at the tournament. They opened with a win over Italians Andreas Seppi and Lorenzo Sonego.

It’s usual for there to be a lot of shifting around—unless you happen to be the greatest men’s team of all time.

Bob and Mike Bryan will be out to add a seventh Australian Open crown to their title haul, and will have extra motivation to do so.

Playing the tournament for the last time, the Bryans are seeded No. 13 with a difficult draw ahead of them as they could potentially face the fourth seeds, Ivan Dodig and Filip Polasek, in the third round.