.The NCAA doubles tournament gets underway Thursday, and multiple players have entered into both the singles and doubles draws. Ryan Cardiff breaks down each quarter of the draw and gives a prediction on who he thinks will advance to the semifinals out of each quarter.

The Doubles Draw

2018 NCAA Men's Doubles Top Seeds

Seed Player 1 Player 2 School 1 Nunos Borges Strahinja Rakic Mississippi State 2 William blumberg Robert Kelly North Carolina 3 Juan Carols Aquilar Jordi Arconada Texas A&M 4 Johannes Ingildsen Alfredo Perez Florida

Borges/Rakic Quarter

Mississippi State’s Nuno Borges and Strahinja Rakic enter the doubles tournament as the top seed. Impressively, Borges is also the 3-seed in the singles draw. The Bulldog duo is heavily favored in their opening rounds but their quarterfinal match could be tough. UCF’s Eero Vasa and Korey Lovett (8th ranked) have been solid all year including a win over Florida’s Johannes Ingildsen and Alfredo Perez (4th ranked). UCLA’s Martin Redlicki and Evan Zhu (29th ranked) are also dangerous, having compiled two wins over USC’s Brandon Holt and Riley Smith (10th ranked) on the year.

Therefore, I’ll pick the duo of Redlicki and Zhu to upset Borges and Rakic in the quarterfinals to advance to the semifinals.

Perez/Ingildsen Quarter

Florida’s Alfredo Perez and Johannes Ingildsen (4th ranked) won the Men’s All-American tournament in the fall. They have been a solid line on court-1 for Florida. They face a tough test in their opening round in Stanford’s Tom Fawcett and Axel Geller (32nd ranked). I would not be surprised if Fawcett and Geller took out the Florida pair, especially after a disappointing end to Stanford’s regular season. This should give the Cardinal extra motivation to end the year on a high note.

The other seed in this quarter is Tennessee’s Preston Touliatos and Luis Valero (7th ranked) but there are other dangerous teams in this section including USC’s Holt and Smith (10th ranked) as well as Baylor’s Will Little and Johannes Schretter (15th ranked). Holt and Smith hone a 16-3 dual match record playing at line-1 doubles for the Trojans.

I’ll pick Fawcett and Geller to upset the Florida team in the opening round with Holt and Smith eventually beating the Stanford team in the quarterfinals.

Aguilar/Arconada Quarter

Texas A&M’s top team of Juan Carlos Aguilar and Jordi Arconada (3rd ranked) have been great all year for the Aggies with four wins over top-10 ranked opponents this dual match season. Ohio State’s team of Mikael Torpegaard and Martin Joyce could give the Aggies some trouble in the second round. Torpegaard and Joyce, however, have not played a match together since April 8th.

The other seeded team in this quarter is TCU’s Guillermo Nuñez and Alex Rybakov (6th ranked), who beat Aguilar and Arconada back in March by a score of 6-4.

The Aggies, however, have won 9 of their last 11 matches. Therefore, I will pick them to stay hot and advance to the semifinals.

Blumberg/Kelly Quarter

North Carolina’s Will Blumberg and Robert Kelly (2nd ranked) have a 16-3 record on the year. They have spent the season playing at line-1 doubles for the Tar Heels. The Tar Heels beat their first-round opponent in Cal’s JT Nishimura and Billy Griffith (33rd ranked) back in October by a score of 6-2 6-4, but the Cal team has racked up some solid wins since then.

Two other Pac-12 teams could give the Tar Heels a run for their money. UCLA’s Austin Rapp and Keegan Smith (16th ranked) have looked solid lately. USC’s Jack Jaede and Laurens Verboven (9th ranked) could also be a threat.

The USC team owns a 3-1 record over the Bruins on the year. I’ll pick Blumberg and Kelly over Jaede and Verboven in the quarterfinals.

Who are your picks to advance? Let us know in the comments below!

Want more info on the 2018 NCAA tournament? Check out our recap of the NCAA team final, and Ryan’s predictions for the NCAA Singles Tournament.