Tennis tournaments have a unique way of pulling me in. On the eve of covering my 10th pro tournament at the Dallas Open, I left with the usual post-tournament adrenaline rush after days of nonstop matches, tweets, press conferences, and player interviews. There’s nothing quite like the buzz of diving headfirst into an event as a boots-on-the-ground reporter and storyteller.
With its first year upgraded to an ATP 500 event, I arrived in Dallas excited to see the top-seeded matchups many of us likely penciled in when the draw came out. In singles, the American fan in me wanted an All-American semifinal featuring Taylor Fritz vs. Tommy Paul and Ben Shelton vs. Frances Tiafoe.
In doubles, I hoped for a showdown between the top two American teams—Rajeev Ram/Austin Krajicek vs. Nathaniel Lammons/Jackson Withrow—as well as a battle between multi-Grand Slam champions Neal Skupski/Joe Salisbury and Jamie Murray/John Peers. Collectively, the top four doubles seeds in Dallas held 26 major titles and five Olympic medals.
But, as the Tennis Gods often remind us, nothing in this sport goes as planned. It was a week of upsets, and none of those projected matchups came to fruition.
In singles, Shelton and Tiafoe fell victim to Jaume Munar’s hard-court onslaught, while Paul and Fritz were both ousted by Denis Shapovalov’s dramatic resurgence, culminating in the biggest title of his career. In doubles, each of the top four teams were taken down by talented lower-ranked teams who, admittedly, I hadn’t known much about before the event.
- Singles Final: Denis Shapovalov d. (2) Casper Ruud 7-6, 6-3
- Doubles Final: Evan King/Christian Harrison d. Ariel Behar/Robert Galloway 7-6, 7-6
My experience in Dallas reinforced a valuable lesson: even when the big names don’t make it through, this creates an opportunity for other players to take the spotlight and share their stories. It’s a chance to connect with under-the-radar players, learn about their journeys, and witness them reach new career milestones. Seeing their raw emotions minutes after their biggest career wins was a reminder of why we love this sport.
Every tennis player has a story if you take the time to listen. At the Dallas Open, five different American doubles players hit major career milestones—whether reaching a career-high ranking, making their first ATP 500 final, or capturing their first ATP title.
Rob Galloway, 2025 Dallas Open Finalist
- Age: 32
- Ranking: 25 (Career-High)
- Best ATP Result: Two ATP 250 titles (2024: Delray Beach, Mallorca)
- ITF & Challenger Titles: 32
- Current Partner: Ariel Behar
A graduate of Wofford College and Native of Columbia, South Carolina, Rob Galloway never had intentions to play professional tennis until his senior year at Wofford College with convincing and belief from his college coaches. He turned pro in 2015, and at one point early in his pro journey, he was applying for regular jobs and on the brink of quitting.
A late bloomer for tennis standards, Galloway’s biggest career breakthrough came several years later at the 2023 U.S. Open when he reached the quarterfinals and cracked the top 50. Since then, he has continued the best stretch of his career by winning his first two ATP titles in 2024 and recently cracking the top 25, which makes him the third highest-ranked American men’s doubles player behind Nate Lammons and Jackson Withrow.
We feel like we can play at a high level and beat anybody right now. We’re continuing to build each week and improve our consistency together. I don’t set any specific goals – each step is a great success in my career and I’m happy where I am right now. We’re working on playing our game in the big moments – win or lose – and want to feel like we gave it our all at the end of every match.”
– Rob Galloway
Evan King & Christian Harrison, 2025 Dallas Open Champions
- Age: King (32), Harrison (30)
- Ranking: King (55), Harrison (44)
- Best ATP Results: 2025 Dallas Open Champions
- ITF & Challenger Titles: King (42) and Harrison (23 total; 13 in doubles, 10 in singles)
Evan King and Christian Harrison are also career late bloomers, having both been on tour for more than a decade climbing up the ITF and Challenger circuits. King is a Chicago native and former three-time All-American.
Harrison, a Shreveport native who has been injury-plagued throughout his career, cracked the top 200 in singles in 2018 but has since suffered injuries through much of his career and is now fully focused on doubles. He is the younger brother to former ATP standout, Ryan Harrison.
Related Podcast
Evan King and Christian Harrison Interview: The American doubles duo reflects on a career-best week in Dallas winning their first title together on The Doubles Only Podcast.
The Americans posted a career-best week in Dallas coming through doubles qualifying to win six consecutive matches without dropping a set. The occasion marked the first ATP title of any kind for King and Harrison, who climbed nearly 30 ranking spots to respective career highs of No. 54 and 55. Beyond the prize money, this result will help solidify their place in grand slam doubles draws and work on building consistently together as a team.
I had never been to an ATP final before this week. I am happy to share this experience with Christian and we had a blast out on the court all week. We stayed aggressive the entire week and played to win with a see ball, hit ball mentality.”
– Evan King
Evan and I understand each other’s games so well and are close friends off the court. This helps our communication as partners on the court. Our goal as a team is to try to get into the slams and Masters together – which is hard as a team unless you are ranked high enough. It’s difficult to build up chemistry as a lower-ranked player when you’re mixing and matching partners every week.”
– Christian Harrison
Robert Cash and JJ Tracy, 2025 Dallas Open Semifinalists
- Ages: Cash (23), Tracy (22)
- Ranking: Cash (100), Tracy (93)
- Best ATP Result: 2024 finalists at ATP 250 in Newport
- Best Collegiate Result: 2024 NCAA Doubles Champions (Ohio State)
The new kids on the doubles block, Robert Cash and JJ Tracy have made a big splash in the ATP doubles landscape in their short pro career thus far. The reigning 2024 NCAA champs advanced to their first ATP 500 semifinal with a signature win over former World No. 1s and Olympic silver medalists, Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram, in the quarterfinals.
Their success didn’t come out of thin air. In 2024, they made the most out of a few wildcard entries following their NCAA tournament success. Cash and Tracy advanced to an ATP 250 final in Newport during their first ATP event together and also advanced to the second round at the U.S. Open weeks later.
Now firmly inside the top 100, Cash and Tracy are committed to climbing up the doubles rankings together and have both the talent and team chemistry to ascend quickly.
It was an unbelievable week here in Dallas. We haven’t played too many ATP events yet, but this one is definitely the nicest one we’ve seen so far. There’s almost half of the top 100 with college tennis ties. It’s unbelievable how successful former college guys have been in doubles and is just a strong testament to the quality of college doubles right now. Rajeev and Austin are both big inspirations to us – I’ve followed their careers for a long time and we want to work toward where they are.”
– Robert Cash“I play some singles here and there at the Challenger level, but doubles is the priority right now. If my doubles ranking keeps going up, I’m fully committed to playing full-time doubles with Robert and happy to choose that over my singles career.”
– JJ Tracy
Americans in The ATP Top 100 Doubles Rankings
The up-and-coming group of five Americans joins a total of 14 Americans in the current ATP doubles top 100. Here are the current rankings as of February 10, 2024.
- No. 17 Nate Lammons
- No. 17 Jackson Withrow
- No. 25 Robert Galloway
- No. 31 Rajeev Ram
- No. 40 Austin Krajicek
- No. 54 Christian Harrison
- No. 55 Evan King
- No. 74 Sebastian Korda
- No. 80 Ryan Seggerman
- No. 86 Mackie McDonald
- No. 87 Alex Michelsen
- No. 93 JJ Tracy
- No. 94 Patrik Thrac
- No. 100 Robert Cash
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