It has been announced that Rafa will partner Marc Lopez in the doubles at the Rogers Cup in Montreal. This got me thinking about Rafa's doubles career so I went back to our Results section to have a look. Up until his breakout year in singles his doubles ranking was often higher than his singles ranking so here's a look back at those formative years.

Back in 2003 Rafa was trying out a number of partners. In that one year he played with Nicolai Soloviev, Juan Antonio Marin, Feliciano Lopez, Carlos Moya, Andreas Beck, Alex Lopez Moron, David Sanchez, Thierry Ascione and Tommy Robredo.

It wasn't the most fruitful of years. He and his partner lost in the first round in six cases and he won just one match with Juan Antonio Marin and one with Carlos Moya.

With Alex Lopez Moron, though, he took the title in Umag. (Mind you, I've looked at the names of their opponents and it's not unfair to say that none of them have exactly set the tennis world alight - Dominik Hrbaty is the only name I recognise.) For the record, Alex Lopez Moron was a doubles specialist though he never broke into the top 50.


In 2004 he played mainly with Tommy Robredo. They peaked early, winning in Chennai.


After that they reached the round of 16 at the Australian Open, the semi finals in Dubai, the quarter finals in Indian Wells, the round of 16 in Miami and the quarter finals in Stuttgart.


Despite all that practise with Robredo it was Carlos Moya with whom Rafa played in the Olympics. they were beaten in the first round by Sa and Saretta of Brazil 6-7(8), 1-6.


After a brief flirtation with Albert Costa in Sopot where they reached the semi final, it was back with Tommy for the US Open. They had a terrific run there, losing in the semi finals. This achievement promoted Rafa up to 41 in the world doubles rankings - at that point it was higher than his singles ranking of 49. After that it was all downhill and they lost in the first round in Madrid and Basel.


Rafa started 2005 by winning in Doha with Albert Costa.


They stuck together for the Australian Open, where they lost to Mahesh Bhupathi and Todd Woodbridge in the round of 16. Their last pairing was in the Davis Cup in Bratislava where they also lost.


He played with Alberto Martin in Buenos Aires (winning one match) and then played a number of tournaments with Feliciano Lopez. They lost in the quarter finals in Miami (where Rafa's singles ranking finally overtook his doubles ranking) and were runners up in Barcelona.


They pulled out of Halle but then got together to play at Wimbledon. They won their first match and then withdrew. This was the last time that Rafa played doubles at a Grand Slam event and, incidentally, the first time I saw Rafa play in the flesh.



He played with Juan Monaco for the first time in Bastad. Rafa had beaten him comprehensively in the first round in the singles (he won his seventh title of the year at this tournament) but together they got through to the semi finals before losing in three sets.


In Stuttgart (where he took his eighth title of the year) he paired with Fernando Verdasco. Again, this was a partner he had beaten in the singles. They lost in the semi finals.



He was back with Tommy Robredo at the Rogers Cup in Montreal but they only played one round before withdrawing.

His last doubles outing of the year was in the Davis Cup play-offs in Italy. He went back to Feliciano Lopez for this one. Sadly, they lost but, as always, looked remarkably pretty doing so.


So, in the first three years he'd played doubles with thirteen different partners and won titles with three of them. (He's played with twelve different partners since then so I suspect he will always be a doubles tart.) For a while it looked like he would fare better in doubles than singles. He was ranked higher in doubles for 20 weeks at the end of 2004 through to the start of 2005 but his doubles ranking peaked at 26 in August 2005 - just after he hit number 2 in singles.

Although he hasn't played anything like the number of doubles matches he was playing back then, he's gone on to win four more doubles titles - one with Tommy Robredo and the last three with Marc Lopez.

We won't be upset if he wins his 8th doubles title in Montreal.