Champions at last: Neal Skupski and Wesley Koolhof are the kings of Wimbledon after winning the gentlemen’s doubles for their first Grand Slam title.
They overwhelmed Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos 6-4, 6-4 in 77 minutes of near flawless tennis. As a bonus, the pair returned to No.1 in the doubles rankings after the win.
It has been a long time coming and after the disappointment of losing the US Open final last year, the pair looked slightly stunned that their dream had come true.
Skupski also claimed a little piece of tennis history: by adding this gentlemen’s doubles trophy to his two mixed doubles wins in 2021 and 2022, he had done what no British man had done since Leslie Godfree in 1926.
“Growing up watching this amazing championships on TV,” Skupski said, “and starting off at Palmerston Tennis Club in Liverpool and going out there with my dad - this feeling at the moment doesn’t get any better.
"Me and Wesley got together 18 months ago and this was one of our goals for this year: to win a Grand Slam. Now we’ve done it, it feels very special.”
There is a school of thought that believes doubles is the way to go in tennis. It is the discipline that most people can relate to, doubles being what so many people play at their local club.
But quite how these great thinkers imagine the sport played by the likes of Skupski and Koolhof and Granollers and Zeballos is in any way linked to what we mere mortals do on a tennis court is anyone’s guess.
Fair enough, Koolhof returned a couple of serves on his knees with the racket in front of his face but that was because he has lightning reflexes and miraculous hand-eye coordination (his returning was remarkable throughout).
The rest of us try to play that sort of shot (and dump it into the net) because we cannot move and haven’t got a clue.
There was certainly a sense of urgency about the final. This was the first time the gentlemen’s doubles had been played over the best of three sets rather than five – and that meant there was much less time available to make up for unforced errors.
This fact seemed to have put Koolhof on high alert; he set off at full pelt and never let up until the final point.
He and Skupski took over at the top of the doubles rankings at the end of last year and while they are currently No.2 in the pecking order, they were the top seeds here.
And within a handful of games, it was easy to see why. They work together seamlessly as a team with an unspoken understanding of who is going to move where and when.
The first set was wrapped up in 40 minutes and apart from one loose volley from Skupski which brought up a break point against the British-Dutch team, there was not an error to be seen. This was impressive stuff. And it was about to get even better.
As the Spanish-Argentinian combo tried to regroup in the second set, Skupski and Koolhof set about the Zeballos serve. Both men were returning with venom and with a Koolhof high volley thumped away as the clock ticked towards the hour mark, they had the break for 3-2 and were heading for the title.
By this stage, Skupski was trying to match his partner winner for winner and making a pretty good fist of it. Some of his returns were simply stunning but they served only to inspire his partner to play even better.
Granollers and Zeballos were playing better too – they had to or they would have been left to eat their opponents’ dust. But it was too little, too late. Nothing was going to stop Koolhof and Skupski as they sprinted towards the trophy presentation.
As the final point landed, the stats board showed just five unforced errors in the match – and only one of them was chalked up to Skupski and Koolhof. It had been that good a performance.
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