Skupski's journey from getting Federer & Nadal's autographs to shining bright at Wimbledon

At the 2001 Wimbledon boys’ singles event, Ken Skupski qualified and advanced to the quarter-finals of the main draw, a run that featured a victory against Robin Soderling. While the 18-year-old Briton was making a name for himself at the grass-court major, his 11-year-old brother, Neal Skupski, was autograph hunting.

“When I wasn't watching Ken, I would be standing at Aorangi waiting for autographs the whole time, all day,” Neal told ATPTour.com. “[My] best autograph? Roger Federer. I've still got the books. I've got like a flipbook probably the size of a credential and it's full of just old tennis players, guys that I didn't know were going to be very good like Roger Federer, Djokovic. I've gotten Nadal. And then I've got some of the greats like Lleyton Hewitt. I've got Stan Smith in there, McEnroe, Navratilova. So it was time well spent out at Aorangi.”

Now Neal is one of the players kids seek out for autographs. In 2021 and 2022, two decades on from his glory days as an autograph hunter, Skupski claimed mixed doubles glory at The All England Club. Last year, he triumphed in men’s doubles alongside Wesley Koolhof.

“I’d hope to think I haven't changed one bit. Obviously for me, it's a nice thing to kind of be men's doubles champion at Wimbledon,” Neal said. “I see my name on the board, which is an amazing thing for the rest of my life. But anybody that knows me, family, friends, nothing's changed. I'm still normal Neal.”

Skupski never competed in the juniors at Wimbledon like his older brother. But the venue is still where Neal’s love of the sport came to life.

“He seemed to just go off on his own and just take a pen in his hand and his autograph book, and he'd be so proud to come back when he'd got names that you look at the name on the piece of paper, and you wouldn't have a clue who it was,” Ken recalled. “But he'd seemed to know whether it was Lindsay Davenport, or Hingis, or all these different players. For both of us, we both had an upbringing playing a lot of club doubles. So he was more than happy to get some of the autographs of players that the average kid that would go and get autographs wouldn't potentially ask for but he'd be looking for the Bryan brothers, Bhupathi, Knowles, Nestor, all the top guys at the time.”

Neither Skupski was a world-beating prospect. Ken played the Wimbledon main draw once, but had to qualify to do so. They both played college tennis at Louisiana State University and went on to enjoy great success as professionals.

Ken, who is now retired, climbed as high as No. 44 in the PIF ATP Doubles Rankings and claimed seven ATP Tour titles, including three with Neal.

The younger Skupski brother has reached World No. 1 and earned 17 tour-level titles. He is partnering Michael Venus, another former LSU competitor, this fortnight at Wimbledon in an attempt to claim more glory.

“Our parents have both given us an opportunity to sort of go far in this life of tennis and I think we've done a pretty good job of doing something about it and making the most of it,” Ken said. “But overall I can't say how proud I am as a big brother of all the things he's achieved and the part that I've played in nurturing him to give him the best opportunity because I think he's gone above and beyond what I expected of him. But now he's here and he's doing what he's doing and I still believe that there's more in him.”

Ken today serves as Neal’s coach. The older brother admitted that he was not always expecting Neal to enjoy quite as much success as he has.

“I was very lucky to play with him and I cherish that greatly,” Ken said. “But to turn himself into the champion that he is... He's gone above and beyond what everybody I think expects of him. And if he walked away from the game, now, I think everybody would be super proud. But he is super determined, he is super disciplined, he is as good a professional as he can be to give himself the best chance of being successful.”

According to Neal, it is “a bit strange” that he is not defending his title with Koolhof. But he is as eager as ever to earn more hardware. Skupski and Venus, who have already won titles this grass-court season at Queen’s Club and Eastbourne, are into the third round at SW19.

“I’m still as motivated as last year to try and go well. I've known Mike since the college times at LSU. We were teammates. He was a senior, I was a freshman. We played my first year together, we got to I think number two or three in the country in the NCAAs. So that's where it all started back then down in Baton Rouge, and we've stayed good friends ever since,” Neal said. “That's probably the reason why it's been so smooth. As a tandem, we played once before in Washington made the final in the 500, but we haven't played since. It's never really come together.

“In the past, maybe we've wanted to play together, but it just hasn't worked out because of the partners that we've had. But really enjoyed playing on the grass with Mike. We didn't do so well in Stuttgart, we lost first round. But we went on to win Queen's and Eastbourne. Let's see what happens here, take it one match at a time. Looking forward to the rest of our time together.”