Wesley Koolhof (; born 17 April 1989) is a Dutch professional tennis player who specializes in doubles. He has been ranked in doubles as high as world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he first achieved in November 2022. Koolhof also attained a career-high singles ranking of world No. 462 in August 2013.
Koolhof won his first Grand Slam title in doubles at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships with Neal Skupski and in mixed doubles at the 2022 French Open with Ena Shibahara, and he has also reached the US Open men's doubles final in 2020 and 2022 with partners Nikola Mektić and Neal Skupski, respectively. He has won 17 career ATP Tour doubles and mixed doubles titles, including the 2020 ATP Finals title with Mektić and three ATP Masters 1000 titles, comprising the Madrid Open, Canadian Open and Paris Masters, all in 2022 with Skupski. Koolhof was crowned the world No. 1 for the first time in November 2022 and ended the year as the joint-No. 1 with Skupski; the honor made him the fourth Dutchman to attain the top ranking in doubles after Tom Okker, Paul Haarhuis and Jacco Eltingh.
Koolhof has represented the Netherlands at the Davis Cup since 2019 alongside Matwé Middelkoop and Jean-Julien Rojer, and in 2022, helped the team reach the quarterfinals for the first time in 17 years.
Personal life
He is the son of the late Dutch international footballer Jurrie Koolhof.
Career
2015-16: Partnership with Middelkoop, First ATP & 11 Challengers titles
Koolhof won his maiden ATP tour doubles title at the 2016 Sofia Open on indoor hard courts in Bulgaria, partnering compatriot Matwe Middelkoop. The pair defeated Adil Shamasdin and Philipp Oswald in a third set tie-breaker 5–7, 7–6(11–9), [10–6] in the championship match to capture the title.
2017-18: New partnership with Sitak, Five ATP finals
Koolhof teamed up with New Zealand player Artem Sitak mid-year in 2017. They reached the final at the 2017 BB&T Atlanta Open, losing to the Bryan brothers, and lost in the first round at the US Open before winning a Challenger event in Szczecin, Poland, and losing another ATP final, this time at the 2017 Moselle Open in Metz, France, to Julien Benneteau and Édouard Roger-Vasselin.
Starting the new 2018 year in Brisbane, Sitak and Koolhof lost in the semi-finals to Leonardo Mayer and Horacio Zeballos. They lost in the first round in Auckland to Michael Venus and Raven Klaasen, and then 7–6(5), 4–6, 4–6 in the second round of the Australian Open to the eventual winners, Oliver Marach and Mate Pavić.
Sitak and Koolhof then went to Newport Beach in California where, as top seeds, they lost in the first round in straight sets to Treat Huey and Denis Kudla. They then lost in the quarterfinals at Montpellier before going all the way to the final in the New York Open, being beaten by Max Mirnyi and Philipp Oswald in a match tie-break. They followed that up with a first round loss at Delray Beach to Scott Lipsky and Divij Sharan.
Their up and down season continued in Brazil, where they reached the final in São Paulo, but were beaten in straight sets by Federico Delbonis and Máximo González. Their next stop was Irving, Texas, where they lost in the semifinals of the ATP Challenger to Alexander Peya and Philipp Petzschner. Moving to Europe, and playing in the Alicante Challenger in Spain as preparation for the European clay court season, they won their second title together when they beat Guido Andreozzi and Ariel Behar in the final in straight sets. They lost in the first round of their next tournament in Marrakech. In the Hungarian Open they beat the top seeds Nikola Mektic and Alexander Peya in the first round, but lost in the second to Marcin Matkowski and Sitak's former partner Nicholas Monroe.
Their next tournament was at Estoril where they went all the way to the final before losing to the British pair of Kyle Edmund and Cameron Norrie. They then lost in the first round of the Bordeaux Challenger tournament after Sitak had been hit in the right ear by a smash from Radu Albot, and also in the first round in Geneva, the last tournament before the French Open.
At Roland Garros, Sitak and Koolhof beat Andre Begemann and Antonio Sancic in the first round, then the ninth seeds Ivan Dodig and Rajeev Ram, before going down to fifth seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah. All three matches went to a deciding set. After the tournament was finished, it was announced that the pair would split, with Koolhof joining Sitak's fellow New Zealander, and former partner, Marcus Daniell, and Sitak linking up with Indian Divij Sharan.