Nitto ATP Finals 2025: Grand Slam finalists Joe Salisbury & Neal Skupski determined to win silverware at tour finals
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Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski have grown and developed into one of the world’s strongest doubles teams this season.
After a slightly shaky start to their partnership at the beginning of the year, the British duo have gone on to reach two Grand Slam finals in Paris and New York, and now have their sights on finishing as the year-end champions at the Nitto ATP Finals.
Ahead of the Rolex Paris Masters and then their journey to the Finals, we sat down with the Brits to discuss their season and the challenge ahead in Turin.
“I think the two standouts for me would be the two Grand Slam finals we made together,” Salisbury said reflecting on the 2025 season so far.
“They were great tournaments and big achievements, especially at the French Open. For me, I haven’t done so well at the French Open in the past, so getting to the final there was a good achievement and coming so close to winning it.
“When I think how we started the year, we weren’t doing well – we did well to keep sticking at it, working hard and trusting that the results would come. It got a lot better and we’ve have a great four or five months up until now.
“We’ve had some disappointments not getting the titles that we want but I think we’ve been very consistent and had a lot of good results.”
Salisbury and Skupski are two of five British players set to feature at this year’s Finals – alongside world No.1 Lloyd Glasspool, Julian Cash and Henry Patten. Earlier this month, the five Brits were all ranked inside the world’s top 10 – making Great Britain only the third nation to ever achieve this feat and the first for 32 years.
There’s a strong argument that this is the most successful era of British men’s doubles, especially coming off a season in which every Grand Slam final had British representation.
The progress made over recent years have been no fluke. The influence of LTA Senior Performance Advisor and coaching guru Louis Cayer has been a huge factor in the development of British doubles, alongside the facilities and support made available at the National Tennis Centre.
Former Davis Cup duo Salisbury and Skupski are proud to be part of such a strong group of players pushing for the top spots in the rankings, as well as the biggest titles – but admit the British challenge in Turin could add an extra layer to the competition.
It’s a combination of things. Obviously the LTA play a big role helping the doubles guys with training at the NTC, physios, dietitians, the coaches, Louis Cayer. I think the whole British system for doubles, everyone buys into it.
“It’s amazing,” Salisbury said. “It’s been quite a few years now where we’ve had a strong group of British doubles players. There’s been a lot of players in the top 50 but now we’ve had five in the top 10. To have this many in the tour finals is amazing.
Skupski added: “It’s a combination of things (why the Brits have been so successful). Obviously the LTA play a big role helping the doubles guys with training at the NTC, physios, dietitians, the coaches, Louis Cayer.
"I think the whole British system for doubles, everyone buys into it whether it’s from Louis or one of your individual coaches, everyone knows their roles. It’s good competition, when you see another Brit doing well you strive to be better than them.
“It doesn’t really matter who you play now, everyone kind of knows each other. It will be interesting to see who the fans support (in Turin). We could have a situation where three teams from one group could be British, which would be quite interesting.
“We’ll see what happens with the draw and whoever we face, it will be a tough match no matter what. Maybe it will add a bit of extra spice if there are Brits on either side.”
On advantage that they will have coming into Turin is that they have a past ATP Finals champion in their team.
Salisbury won back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023 alongside American partner Rajeev Ram – adding to their four Grand Slam trophies together.
The British pair will be hoping that their added experience in the latter stages of the tournament will help them get over the line and lift the trophy this season.
“It’s definitely up there with the Grand Slams for me,” Salisbury said, reflecting on where his ATP Finals wins rank in his list of career achievements.
“The tour finals is the top eight teams and it’s a tough match every one that you play. It feels extra special the fact that you’re playing the tour finals and you play every match on the centre court which we don’t get to do at every tournament. It’s a special week whether you go out in the group stage or win the tournament.”
“The Finals are very unique,” Skupski explained. “It’s all the teams who have done well throughout the year. Joe has been lucky enough to win it twice now. I’ve made the semi-final in 2022.
“It is different, it’s round-robin for the first few matches and then if you get out the group you’ve got the semi-final and final. It’s nice, you do feel special and hopefully Joe can show me the way to the title this year.”
Salisbury and Skupski will be competing in the Nitto ATP Finals from the 9-16 November. You can watch all the action live exclusively on Sky Sports and NOW TV.
