On the 2001 Wimbledon boys’ singles occasion, Ken Skupski certified and superior to the quarter-finals of the primary draw, a run that featured a victory in opposition to Robin Soderling. Whereas the 18-year-old Briton was making a reputation for himself on the grass-court main, his 11-year-old brother, Neal Skupski, was autograph searching.
“After I wasn’t watching Ken, I’d be standing at Aorangi ready for autographs the entire time, all day,” Neal informed ATPTour.com. “[My] finest autograph? Roger Federer. I’ve nonetheless acquired the books. I’ve acquired like a flipbook in all probability the dimensions of a credential and it is filled with simply previous tennis gamers, guys that I did not know have been going to be superb like Roger Federer, Djokovic. I’ve gotten Nadal. After which I’ve acquired a few of the greats like Lleyton Hewitt. I’ve acquired Stan Smith in there, McEnroe, Navratilova. So it was time properly spent out at Aorangi.”
Now Neal is without doubt one of the gamers children search out for autographs. In 2021 and 2022, 20 years on from his glory days as an autograph hunter, Skupski claimed blended doubles glory at The All England Membership. Final yr, he triumphed in males’s doubles alongside Wesley Koolhof.
“I’d hope to suppose I have not modified one bit. Clearly for me, it is a good factor to form of be males’s doubles champion at Wimbledon,” Neal mentioned. “I see my title on the board, which is a tremendous factor for the remainder of my life. However anyone that is aware of me, household, mates, nothing’s modified. I am nonetheless regular Neal.”
Skupski by no means competed within the juniors at Wimbledon like his older brother. However the venue continues to be the place Neal’s love of the game got here to life.
“He appeared to simply go off on his personal and simply take a pen in his hand and his autograph guide, and he’d be so proud to return again when he’d acquired names that you simply have a look at the title on the piece of paper, and also you would not have a clue who it was,” Ken recalled. “However he’d appeared to know whether or not it was Lindsay Davenport, or Hingis, or all these totally different gamers. For each of us, we each had an upbringing enjoying a whole lot of membership doubles. So he was more than pleased to get a few of the autographs of gamers that the typical child that will go and get autographs would not probably ask for however he’d be searching for the Bryan brothers, Bhupathi, Knowles, Nestor, all the highest guys on the time.”
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Neither Skupski was a world-beating prospect. Ken performed the Wimbledon foremost draw as soon as, however needed to qualify to take action. They each performed faculty tennis at Louisiana State College and went on to get pleasure from nice success as professionals.
Ken, who’s now retired, climbed as excessive as No. 44 within the PIF ATP Doubles Rankings and claimed seven ATP Tour titles, together with three with Neal.
The youthful Skupski brother has reached World No. 1 and earned 17 tour-level titles. He’s partnering Michael Venus, one other former LSU competitor, this fortnight at Wimbledon in an try to assert extra glory.
“Our mother and father have each given us a chance to form of go far on this lifetime of tennis and I believe we have completed a reasonably good job of doing one thing about it and taking advantage of it,” Ken mentioned. “However general I am unable to say how proud I’m as an enormous brother of all of the issues he is achieved and the half that I’ve performed in nurturing him to offer him the perfect alternative as a result of I believe he is gone above and past what I anticipated of him. However now he is right here and he is doing what he is doing and I nonetheless imagine that there is extra in him.”
Ken as we speak serves as Neal’s coach. The older brother admitted that he was not at all times anticipating Neal to get pleasure from fairly as a lot success as he has.
“I used to be very fortunate to play with him and I cherish that drastically,” Ken mentioned. “However to show himself into the champion that he’s… He is gone above and past what all people I believe expects of him. And if he walked away from the sport, now, I believe all people could be tremendous proud. However he’s tremendous decided, he’s tremendous disciplined, he’s nearly as good an expert as he could be to offer himself the perfect likelihood of being profitable.”
In response to Neal, it’s “a bit unusual” that he’s not defending his title with Koolhof. However he’s as keen as ever to earn extra {hardware}. Skupski and Venus, who’ve already received titles this grass-court season at Queen’s Membership and Eastbourne, are into the third spherical at SW19.
“I’m nonetheless as motivated as final yr to attempt to go properly. I’ve identified Mike because the faculty instances at LSU. We have been teammates. He was a senior, I used to be a freshman. We performed my first yr collectively, we acquired to I believe quantity two or three within the nation within the NCAAs. In order that’s the place it began again then down in Baton Rouge, and we have stayed good mates ever since,” Neal mentioned. “That is in all probability the explanation why it has been so clean. As a tandem, we performed as soon as earlier than in Washington made the ultimate within the 500, however we have not performed since. It is by no means actually come collectively.
“Previously, possibly we have wished to play collectively, but it surely simply hasn’t labored out due to the companions that we have had. However actually loved enjoying on the grass with Mike. We did not achieve this properly in Stuttgart, we misplaced first spherical. However we went on to win Queen’s and Eastbourne. Let’s examine what occurs right here, take it one match at a time. Wanting ahead to the remainder of our time collectively.”
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