Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski will contend for their first title of the season at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells after winning seven team titles in 2022. The Dutch-British team defeated Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-3, 4-6, 10-5 on Friday in the semi-finals at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden by winning 22 of 31 points on their first serve. Top seeds Koolhof and Skupski, who won three Masters 1000 championships in the previous season in Madrid, Montreal, and Paris, will face off in their first final of 2023.
Koolhof and Skupski will next play Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden, who defeated defending champions John Isner and Jack Sock 7-6(6), 7-6 by saving all nine break points they faced. Without experiencing a break point of their own, the Indian-Australian team won Friday's semi-final and maintained a high level to win two tie-breaks. Bopanna and Ebden have had a successful start to the year, winning the ATP 500 tournament in Dubai and placing second in Rotterdam.