Just looking at the players lists from the upcoming Beijing Olympics.

Looking at Men's Doubles, some of the traditional teams are obvious medal contenders:
1) Bob and Mike Bryan, USA
2) Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich, Israel
3) Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes, India (only back together for Davis Cup and Olympics)

Other notable teams- and others will note some other contenders when looking at the list:

1) Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa, Brazil
2) Fernado Gonzales and Nicolas Massu, Chile
3) Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic, Croatia
4) Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra, France
5) Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilifred Tsonga, France
6) Andy and Jaime Murray, Great Britain
7) Novak Djokovic and Nenad Zimonjic, Serbia
8) Nicolas Almagro and David Ferrer, Spain
9) Rafael Nadal and Tommy Robredo, Spain
10) Jonas Bjorkman and Robin Soderling, Sweden
11) Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka, Switzerland


I enjoy the Olympics doubles because the big players step up and play for their country. I wish they could play more doubles during the tour, because I think it would make it more exciting for sure.

Besides the 3 teams above I think the teams to watch out for this year will be- Clement and Llodra, Djokovic and Zimonjic, Nadal and Robredo, Bjorkman and Soderling, Federer and Wawrinka. Monfils/Tsonga would be my spoiler or surprise team.

On the women's side, one of the biggest surprises in doubles for me is that there is no Serbia doubles team- Ivanovic and Jankovic will not be playing doubles together, which is truly sad. I don't think they have ever played Fed Cup for Serbia at the same time either.... they must really, really not like one another at all!! LOL

Anyways- here are the teams to look out for in the Women's Doubles:

1) Serena and Venus Williams- OF COURSE lol
2) Samantha Stosur and Renae Stubbs, Australia
3) Yung-Jan Chan and Chia-Jung Chuang, Taipei
4) Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko, Ukraine
5) Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginie Ruano Pascual, Spain

I think some of the second tier contenders could be:
1) Casey Dellacqua and Alicia Molik, Australia
2) Yan Zi and Zheng Jie, China
3) Peng Shuai and Sun Tian Tian, China
4) Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone, Italy
5) Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina, Russia
6) Elena Vesnina and Vera Zvonareva, Russia
7) Linsday Davenport and Liezel Huber, USA (I think it should have been Huber/Raymond)

My picks for medal winners/contenders: Williams/Williams, Stosur/Stubbs, Garrigues/Pascual, Pennetta/Sciavone, Kuznetsova/Safina, both Chinese teams with home crowd

they played together earlier this year in FedCup

http://www.fedcup.com/ties/tie.asp?tie=100010610

I am surprised that they wouldn't play doubles in the Olympics then... especially the #1 and #2 players in the world. They musn't play enough to permit them into the draw- or the Serbian Federation didn't submit them for it, which really wouldn't make sense.

Not to get off the doubles subject, but dies anyone know why Andy Roddick isn't on the Olympic team? I have never heard any reason for it?

No problem. Andy wants to use the time to stay in the States and avoid the long travel times in order to be more refreshed for a U.S. Open run.

I am a bit disappinted since the Olympics is essentially a fifth mini-slam in its importance and both the ATP and WTA offer a good amount of tour points for a 1 week tourney.