This was the 14th appearance of men's doubles tennis. The event has been held at every Summer Olympics where tennis has been on the program: from 1896 to 1924 and then from 1988 to the current program. A demonstration event was held in 1968.
The American pair of Bryan brothers, Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, had been the top seed in 2004 but exited in the quarterfinals. They were again the number one seed in Beijing, but were defeated in the semifinals and took bronze. For a third Games, they were the top seed.[4] Defending champions Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka also returned. One of the French fourth-place team members, Michaël Llodra, also competed again, this time paired with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. 2000 gold medalist Daniel Nestor (and career golden slam winner) of Canada competed for a fourth Games with his third different partner.
Colombia made its debut in the event. France and Great Britain each made their 11th appearance in the event, tied for most of all nations.
Qualification for the men's doubles was primarily through the ATP ranking list of 11 June 2012. An additional restriction was that players had to have been available for two Davis Cup events between 2009 and 2012. Nations had been able to enter four players (two pairs) in the event since the 2004 Games. Each nation was limited to a total of 6 male players in the singles and doubles events combined, so nations with 4 singles players could add only 2 more in doubles. The men's doubles draw was 32 pairs (64 players), with most of the pairs coming from the singles event where nations had 2 or 4 players. Doubles players ranked 10 or better qualified directly and could bring any ranked singles or doubles player from their nation as their partner. The ITF allocated places based on ranking and continental and national representation (bringing the total number of male tennis players to 86).
Competition format
The competition was a single-elimination tournament with a bronze-medal match. All matches were best-of-three sets; the final was reduced from best-of-five in prior Games. Tiebreaks were used for any set before the third (fifth in the final) that reached 6–6.
^"Tennis". London 2012 Organization Committee. Archived from the original on 4 December 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
^"Tennis – About". Official site of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 4 December 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
