Doubles, Men

With many of the top regular partnerships on the ATP Tour split up because the pairs are of mixed nationalities, the Olympic tournament can sometimes appear foreign to regular observers of tennis. The most successful team eligible to attend London were the Bryan twins, Bob and Mike, who were representing the USA, and they were seeded first ahead of a couple of irregular pairings of doubles experts and highly ranked singles players with limited doubles experience. After a scare against Brazilian opponents in the first round, the Bryans moved smoothly through the top half of the draw and reached the final where they would meet the second seeds from France, Michaël Llodra and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. The American pairing ran out comfortable winners possibly as the Frenchmen were still suffering from their exertions in the semi-final where they won 18-16 in the final set. The Bryans became the first pairing to win a golden slam of all 4 major championships and the Olympic title although Daniel Nestor had already achieved this feat with different partners. The record for the longest three set match in Olympic history was set in the second round when the Brazilian pairing of Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares upset 5th seeds Tomáš Berdych and Radek Štěpánek of the Czech Republic 6-1 4-6 24-22.