While the Great Britain media is saturated with Andrew Murray, the success of English doubes specialist Ken Skupski goes disappointingly unnoticed. A former LSU college player Skupski has grind it out on the tennis circuit playing doubles with a steady climb up the ATP rankings to the mid 50s over the past 2 years and now 3 ATP titles wins. His most recent in France on the February 20th playing for the first time with Robin Haase . They made a dream debut as they saved one match point to win the Open 13 title with a 6-3, 6-7(4), 13-11 victory over French pairing Julien Benneteau and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final of the ATP World Tour 250 indoor hard-court tennis tournament on Sunday.
Ken Skupski is from a blue collar city of Liverpool. A city dominated by Liverpool football club that was recently acquired by the new owners John W Henry who also won the Boston Red Sox.
I interviewed the Skupski parents last year ( see my website http://www.kingarthurusa.com/www.kingarthurusa.com/Ken_Skupski.html) The tennis fan will get an insight to the sacrifices that are made to get a player on the circuit. Winning means the dollar.
An excerpt from the article
Grass roots tennis on Plastic
Mark Petchey former coach to Andrew Murray and Tim Henman, Wimbledon, US Open, French Open semi finalist spoke about getting back to grass roots tennis, well here in Liverpool a young man started from grass roots and continues to improved as he climbs the professional tennis ladder. This is how two parents continue to keep the dream alive for their sons
A young rookie policemen is placed on the front line of the 1981 Toxteth riots in England that almost brought the country to a stand still and threatened anarchy. In all, the rioting lasted nine days, during which one person died after being struck by a police vehicle attempting to clear crowds, there were 468 police officers injured, 500 people arrested, and at least 70 buildings damaged so severely by fire that they had to be demolished. Around 100 cars were destroyed, and there was extensive looting of shops. Later estimates suggested the numbers of injured police officers and destroyed buildings were at least double those of the official figure. Nearly 30 years later, PC Ken Skupski, through toil and sweat, numerous injuries, ( he suffered a broken arm when his vehicle was attacked with an iron bar and contacted hepatitis) and long night shifts paroling the same streets that has had substantial investment from central government but still high unemployment and social deprivation exists is nearing retirement.