Wesley Koolhof: A farewell to tennis
Last year at Wimbledon I experienced as close to euphoria as I imagine is possible in tennis. I was playing doubles with Neal Skupski, who is from Great Britain. It was a dream of mine to play on Centre Court and it was incredible to have the opportunity to compete on such a grand stage in the championship match.
To lift the trophy in front of Neal’s home fans at The Championships made it even more special.
Winning a Grand Slam title was one of the big things I really wanted to achieve in my career. In 2020, I won the Nitto ATP Finals with Nikola Mektic. I am a six-time ATP Masters 1000 champion. In 2022, I became the No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Doubles Rankings and was part of the year-end No. 1 team. Finally, I was able to call myself a major titlist.
There was so much media attention back home and other things that went with capturing the trophy. I remember going to the Wimbledon Ball on Sunday evening, thinking about how few players earn the chance to do something like that. It was just an incredible feeling.
For the next three weeks I was home with my fiancee, former WTA player Julia Goerges, and really enjoyed that time. Less than two months after winning Wimbledon I was sitting in my hotel room in Cincinnati thinking, ‘Okay, what am I going to do now with my life?’
I had accomplished everything I wanted to achieve, and winning the title on the hallowed grass was basically the last thing to tick off. One day I would love to start a family. You see a lot of doubles guys traveling with their little ones, or need to leave their kids because there is a tournament to play. I don’t see myself doing that.
It was not that long after that moment when I decided that the 2024 season would be the last of my career.
I’m really happy that I was able to make the Nitto ATP Finals one more time and while I will compete for The Netherlands in Davis Cup, this is my final tournament.
<img alt=”Wesley Koolhof/Neal Skupski” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2023/07/15/17/21/koolhof-skupski-wimbledon-2023-saturday-trophy-shot.jpg?w=100%25″ />
2023 Wimbledon champions Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski. Photo: Getty Images.
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I began playing tennis like many kids, hitting against a wall aged three. My parents, Monique and Jurrie, enjoyed tennis and would take me to a club called Columbae in Duiven, my hometown.
I also played football — my father was a professional, which made it easier to take up the sport. But there was something about the individuality of tennis I liked more. I began taking lessons at four and pretty early on local talent scouts picked me to practise with better players.
Growing up, I looked up to Andre Agassi. I loved how he played. He had an amazing baseline game, was returning super solid and his tempo in rallies was really high. That style attracted me.
That was also my game when I was younger. When I was playing singles, I was only hitting forehands from the back, a little bit like Rafael Nadal, running around backhands all the time and only hitting forehands. I was okay at the net, but not very comfortable during my singles career.
Andre wasn’t known for his best volleys, either. He only came to the net to shake hands, basically. Maybe it’s a bit ironic that my idol played that way and I’ve had my success playing doubles.
My parents took me to the Rotterdam tournament every year, but I was not one of the kids chasing autographs and trying to meet the players. I just wanted to watch tennis, no matter who played.
A dream of mine was to perform once on centre court in Rotterdam, to try to be as good as the players I watched. It came full circle earlier this year when I won the title there.
When I was young, I was only thinking about singles, not doubles. But the longer you play, the more you dream, and the more you try to challenge yourself and make it very far.
In singles, I reached a career-high World No. 462 in 2013. Two years later, I gave up on that dream of being a great singles player and shifted my focus towards doubles, not knowing how that was going to go.
I knew how to play it. I liked it. I thought I had a pretty good eye for it. I had some anticipation skills and knew what was happening. I always played both because I liked the doubles game, and I also thought it was good for my singles as well, to improve myself at the net.
In 2019, my career began to take off. I played some with Stefanos Tsitsipas, which helped my ranking a lot, and we made my first Masters 1000 final in Miami. I made two more Masters 1000 finals that year with Robin Haase and while I did not win any of those finals, it changed my trajectory.
Since then it has been a dream, winning tournaments like the Nitto ATP Finals with Nikola — and we hope to do it again this year. That event was our last together before this season.
<img alt=”Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/11/11/18/58/koolhof-mektic-2022-nitto-atp-finals.jpg” />
2020 Nitto ATP Finals champions Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic. Photo: Ella Ling/ATP Tour.
But I was able to thankfully have more success. Neal and I began our partnership in 2022 and it went through the roof. I became No. 1 at the end of the year after winning Paris and finishing at the year-end No. 1 team was extremely special.
When I made the decision to retire I wanted to go one more year, for the Olympics, Davis Cup and trying to earn as much glory as possible. I’m still happy with the decision and we’ve had an incredible start and end of the year.
I’d like to also thank Julia, whom I think most people will know, especially the tennis fans. We met in 2019 at the wedding of another WTA player, Kiki Bertens. She reached the Top 10 and beat the best players in the world, so she has so much experience at the upper levels of tennis.
Since I met Julia, my career has been on the rise. She helped me make decisions with my tennis and most importantly is an incredible human being. She has played such an important part in making my dreams come true.
We are getting married at the end of the year, which is a great way to end things. This is the end of my career, and the start of a new life. After we get married and take our honeymoon, I look forward to just relaxing at home together and just enjoying life.
I don’t know what will be next, but after taking some time off I’d love to stay in tennis. In this world, you meet so many people, and tennis has always been part of my life. I am also open to things other than tennis, too. I will just wait and see what comes around the corner, and you’ll see me somewhere.
For now, I’m excited for one last ride at the Nitto ATP Finals.