Skupski & Koolhof reach first Wimbledon final
Britain’s Neal Skupski and Dutch partner Wesley Koolhof have reached the final of the Wimbledon men’s doubles for the first time.
The top seeds comfortably beat India’s Rohan Bopanna and Australian Matthew Ebden 7-5 6-4.
The pair were featuring in their first semi-final at SW19, with Skupski having won two titles in the mixed doubles.
They will face 15th seeds Horacio Zeballos of Argentina and Spain’s Marcel Granollers in Saturday’s final.
Having won the mixed doubles in 2021 and 2022 with American partner Desirae Krawczyk, Skupski is hoping to add the men’s doubles title to his record.
The Liverpudlian has never won a Grand Slam with Koolhof, with their best result as a partnership coming when they reached the final of the US Open last year. But they are highly fancied and knocked out last year’s champions en route to their second major final.
Skupski has only gone beyond the third round once in men’s doubles at Wimbledon, in 2017, and there has not been a British men’s doubles champion here since Jonathan Marray won alongside Danish partner Frederik Nielsen in 2012.
Briton Jamie Murray reached the 2015 final with Australian partner John Peers but they were beaten to the title.
In a match packed with entertaining rallies and tense volleys at the net, Skupski and Koolhof needed just one break in each set to seal victory.
Some nerves seemed evident in the opener as Skupski hit three double faults to gift Bopanna and Ebden break points but the Briton eventually steadied himself to take the hold.
He cut a more composed figure after that, hitting a forehand winner through the middle to seal the break before serving out the opening set.
Bopanna, 43, hit two double faults of his own in the second set before firing one into the net to hand Skupski and Koolhof the crucial break.
With the roof closed on Court One, a cheer echoed around the arena as the pair brought up two match points and Koolhof sealed it at the first time of asking with a thumping ace.
Their opponents in the final Zeballos and Granollers have reached the final by beating German 10th seeds Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz, who knocked out Britain’s Jamie Murray and Michael Venus in the quarter-finals.