  We present observations with the planet finder SPHERE of a selected sample of
the most promising radial velocity (RV) companions for high-contrast imaging.
Using a Monte Carlo simulation to explore all the possible inclinations of the
orbit of wide RV companions, we identified the systems with companions that
could potentially be detected with SPHERE. We found the most favorable RV
systems to observe are : HD\,142, GJ\,676, HD\,39091, HIP\,70849, and HD\,30177
and carried out observations of these systems during SPHERE Guaranteed Time
Observing (GTO).
  To reduce the intensity of the starlight and reveal faint companions, we used
Principle Component Analysis (PCA) algorithms alongside angular and spectral
differential imaging. We injected synthetic planets with known flux to evaluate
the self-subtraction caused by our data reduction and to determine the
5$\sigma$ contrast in the J band $vs$ separation for our reduced images. We
estimated the upper limit on detectable companion mass around the selected
stars from the contrast plot obtained from our data reduction.
  Although our observations enabled contrasts larger than 15 mag at a few
tenths of arcsec from the host stars, we detected no planets. However, we were
able to set upper mass limits around the stars using AMES-COND evolutionary
models. We can exclude the presence of companions more massive than 25-28 \MJup
around these stars, confirming the substellar nature of these RV companions.
