It feels to me like these are a few important weeks for our mens doubles guys outside of Jamie M.

Fleming and the Skupski's in this event, and Dom Inglot and Jonny Marray over in Russia haven't really had good seasons, largely been standing still, swapping partners a few times and dont really feel like they have made a push through to a higher level. Whether they are capable I guess is a question to be asked. But all of them play best on the hard courts and indoor courts we will see over the final 7 weeks of the main tour season and it feels like it would be a good time for any one of them to put a marker down.

Apart from Dom, hopefully, the rest are all probably outside the Aus Open entry requirements as well ( I may be wrong there) and so a good few weeks would be important for them all.

Would be good to see one of the British doubles guys make a push this week if they can! Fingers crossed

Jon

PS If I am being unfair let me know but I personally feel all of the above apart from Jamie (obviously) havent set the world on fire or performed as well they themselves would probably have liked

R1:  Gero Kretschmer & Jan-Lennard Struff (GER/GER) CR 315 (104+211) defeated Ken Skupski & Neal Skupski CR 146 (71+75) by 1-6 7-5 [10-6] 

JonH wrote:

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philwrig wrote:

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I think Ken and Neal have had a solid year, very consistent for the most part, and with higher rankings than they started the year.

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 Hi - philwrig - I take your point but given they are a well established pair and have been going for a few seasons now, they havent really made the breakthrough I would have hoped for...their loss today to the German pair in Metz as per SC's result post is one I would have hoped they would win, and it would be good to see them get a few good results over the final weeks of the season 

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 Obviously they'd like to be higher up the rankings, being guaranteed GS entry really is their 1st goal, finances are very important, and they're always on the cusp. Today was very unfortunate well up in the MTB, and could have won in straights. I think Ken's career high was around about top 50, so really given he's not the young whippersnapper he once was ;), his current ranking is pretty good. As for Neal, still very young and plenty more to come I would say.

I think they have tried playing with different players and it hasn't really worked. They play well together as a team.

They may end up going separate ways, who knows? Ken has a young family to provide for and Neal's partner is based out in the states.

They had a great first season together, the other doubles teams worked them out and they had the second season dip and they have had a half decent season this year.

Neal has earned $33k in prize money on tour, Ken $48K this year, but Neal did play WTT

With all the expenses occurred, they are not really making a decent living out of tennis and need to boost that ranking. Direct ranking into the GS is the big aim as it pays the bills.

 for the second time this afternoon!

R1:  Colin Fleming & Scott Lipsky (USA) CR 112 (68+44) defeated (WC) Jürgen Melzer & Dominic Thiem (AUT/AUT) CR 600 (511+89) by 4-6 7-6(5) [10-8]

The Austrian wild cards served for the match at 5-4 in the second...

-- Edited by Stircrazy on Friday 23rd of September 2016 09:37:45 AM

Regarding the Skupskis I guess it's a question of performance against reasonable expectation.

Ken's CH 44 dates back to 2010 and his time with Colin Fleming, a fine doubles player who was later to achieve a CH 17 in 2013.

The brothers became a regular partnership from 2013  ( after Ken had had a period of quite a numbet of partners ) and if we look at their highs from 2014 on, essentially there best ranking from results as a regular partnership, these highest are 63 for Ken from April / May 2014 and Neal's CH 69 from March, April and July 2014 ( essentially as paulisi says from their first year together ).

After ending last year around the 100 mark ( after last year for a large part being outside the top 100 ) as Phil says they have risen in the rankings this year to their current rankings of Ken WR 71 and Neal WR 77, not that far off their highest as a partnership.

As Jon said they are now a pretty established pair of over 3 years, so while of course they want to get as high as possible, if neither have been above the 60s as a partnership so far I don't see any particular reason to expect any sudden breakthrough now such as suddenly becoming top 50 players in partnership.

In truth you can only really do your best and an improved ranking into the 70s this year to not far off where they were after that first year seems fair going. Ken is also 33 ( in truth hardly old for a top doubles player but not getting any younger ) and so again I don't see it particularly reasonable to expect a great 'breakthrough' now beyond the good solid levels they have achieved to now.

As for their loss this this week, basically such results will happen ( and I haven't looked further into their opponents' form etc ).

-- Edited by indiana on Tuesday 20th of September 2016 06:10:00 PM

QF:  Marcus Daniell & Marcelo Demoliner (NZL/BRA) CR 137 (55+62) vs Colin Fleming & Scott Lipsky (USA) CR 112 (68+44)

Looks pretty evenly balanced.  That said, the Kiwi/Brazilian partnership is established & has just despatched the top seeds, Benneteau & ERV, in three sets...

-- Edited by Stircrazy on Friday 23rd of September 2016 09:38:16 AM