Koolhof Secures No. 1, Paris SF Slot

Dutchman Wesley Koolhof had two reasons to celebrate at the Rolex Paris Masters Friday after teaming with Neal Skupski to reach the semi-finals with a victory that guarantees his rise to No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings on Monday.

Koolhof and Skupski cruised to a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Rohan Bopanna and Matwe Middelkoop to move to within two victories of their seventh title of the season.

“It’s a dream to become World No. 1 individual,” Koolhof said. “But we still have a semi-final, hopefully a final to play here, we still have Turin. There’s still a lot to play for.

“It means everything, obviously. I think the first goal you have when you start playing tennis is you want to become World No. 1. I didn’t know until I opened the live rankings on Monday, because I saw the Nitto ATP Finals points drop off for Ram and Salisbury. [I] needed to make semi-final here [Paris] to be No. 1. It feels great to reach the goal.”

The second seeds will next face Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara, who secured their place at the coveted Nitto ATP Finals after ousting Matthew Ebden and Jamie Murray 6-3, 7-6(6). Saturday’s semi-final clash will mark Glasspool and Heliovaara’s third meeting with the Dutch-British pair this season (1-1).

Only one doubles qualification spot remains at the season finale Nitto ATP Finals, which is held 13-20 November.