As another ATP Tour season comes to a close, yet another former collegiate athlete has climbed to the No. 1 rank in the Men’s Doubles Rankings, marking 32 weeks of the past 33 weeks where a collegiate alum has held this distinction.
Spanning all the way back to April of this year, Joe Salisbury (Memphis), Rajeev Ram (Illinois), and Neal Skupski (LSU) have all spent time as the world No. 1 this season with Skupski currently holding the top rank alongside Wesley Koolhof.
For Salisbury, he spent the most time leading the pack from the No. 1 position, holding on to this honor for six months over the summer and into the fall before ultimately surrendering the rank to his doubles partner, Ram, who took over the torch for collegiate alums.
Becoming just the third British No. 1 in either Singles or Doubles at the time, Salisbury has consistently excelled in doubles at the tour level, taking home his fifth Grand Slam Title in 2022, while winning two more Masters level events this season as well.
Part of the dynamic duo with Salisbury, Ram earned his first world No. 1 ranking earlier this season when he overtook Salisbury this past October for the top spot which he held onto for nearly a month.
The 38-year-old took home his fifth Grand Slam Championship alongside Salisbury at the US Open this year, and with dominant results still coming in season after season, it appears that there will be no slowing down for Ram in foreseeable future.
Skupski became the third and final collegiate alum to take the reigns as the world No. 1 in 2022 when he and his partner Koolhof took the honors over Ram and Salisbury earlier this week.
Taking home a mixed doubles title at Wimbledon this season, Skupski has been flourishing with Koolhof in 2022 winning seven ATP Tour Doubles Titles, while finishing as runners-up to Ram and Salisbury at the US Open as well.
These three collegiate alums just scratch the surface of the dominance former student-athletes have been having in the ATP Doubles Rankings as currently, 18 of the Top-50 players have experience at the collegiate level.
This includes seven of the sixteen players who are currently participating in the ATP Doubles Finals in Turnin, Italy which marks the climax of the ATP Tour season.
