Sander Groen: Most Doubles Partners In ATP History?

By Scoop Malinowski

No entity can cover all statistical data in tennis. There’s simply too much to compile. One category that is never discussed is, Which player has had the most partners in doubles history?

Sander Groen did some research and believes he may be holding a unique world record: Over the course of 27 years of playing professional events he had 240 different doubles partners from 47 different countries (see complete list below).

The Dutch player’s ATP career spanned from March 1990 to February 2019. When he had totaled 170 different partners in 2016, a TV station interviewed the oblivious Groen about a special distinction he had unknowingly achieved.

Now Groen, who helped https://www.tennis-prose.com/bios/biofile-sander-groen-interview/Roger Federer win his first ever ATP title in Segovia, says his goal is “to make a selfie with every single one of my partners. Unfortunately three of them have passed away: Menno Oosting, Herome Golmard and Hanquez Jerome RIP.”

The first partner of Groen’s career was Gollwitzer of Germany in Douai Satellite in France. The last was Kyle Koch at a Futures in Sunrise, FL.

When asked if he can think of anyone who may have had more doubles partners – perhaps Leander Paes – Groen, the winner of 13 doubles titles, replied, “Paes played way too much with regular partners. He will not even have a hundred… some guy from Italy was always bragging about similar records. Alessandro Motti. He played hardly any Tour events, maybe ten Tour events and one Grand Slam.”

Groen won his one ATP title in Dubai with first-time partner Goran Ivanisevic, he also won 12 on Challenger level. Nine of Groen’s titles were with first-time partners. “Maybe that’s why I preferred to play with different partners,” he joked.

So who was Groen’s favorite partner?

“I was always saying Michael Llodra made me feel as if he was doing everything by himself and with so much ease.”

Funniest partner? “Too many… probably with Arne Thoms. He was always having funny or sarcastic comments between points.”

Memories of playing and winning with Roger Federer?

“We won Segovia Challenger title together. It was his first ATP title. I was supposed to play with Christophe Rochus but he was pissed off to be scheduled on Monday for singles after coming late from another event so he said, “Better look for another partner because I will tank singles.” Right after that I saw Roger with Peter Lundgren and asked if he was set already. They said no and Peter thought it would be a great idea for Roger to play with someone with so much experience. It was in a Challenger so the draw was not really tough although we lost some sets on the way to the finals. Roger mixed playing brilliant with playing okay, quite up and down. A few weeks later we beat Safin-Ljubicic in Washington qualifying.”

Most odd?

“Probably Marcelo Rios. Indianapolis 1997. I played with Rios in Indy… The week before in Cincinnati, after Gustavo Kuerten and I lost to Rios and Haas in the first round 64 46 63, I told Rios maybe we should play together sometime… so he said, “Why not next week?” I said sure. So we took a wildcard in Indy but he did not talk to me all match! We lost to Grant Stafford and Marcos Ondruska 62 63.”

The Groen 240 list of doubles partners…

NL: Oosting, Siemerink, Winnink, Davids, Wibier, van Lottum, Schalken, Vekemans, Lucassen, Op der Heide, Hommel, Bok, Lodder, Noteboom, Wassen, Beks, Reijnders, Wessels, Sluiter, Logtens, Frantzen, Huta Galung, Westerhof, van der Duim, de Vroome, Lootsma(26)

D: Thoms, Gollwitzer, Rieker, Nensel, Prino, Saceanu, Baur, Schüttler, Kohlman, Maurer, Koslowski, Rhode, Mronz, Goellner, Knippschild, Braasch, Rehmann, Radulescu, Jeschonek, Hilpert, Waske, Burgsmuller, Pretzsch, Kas, Schreyer, Popp, Sinner, Mayer, Zverev, Zelch, Kindlmann, Stebe, Kaczynski, Brinkmann, Mies, Laustroer(36)

F: Boetsch, Llodra, Santoro, Golmard, Dupuis, Simian, Hanquez, Eysseric, Carraz, Sidorenko, Lestienne(11)

I: Ardinghi, Gaudenzi, Camporese, Virgili, Santopadre, Cierro, Bertolini, Caratti, Galvani, Marrai(10)

CH: Federer, Rosset, Heuberger(3)

E: Corretja, Ritchie Sanchez, Javier Sanchez, Rascon, Benfele, Rubio, Alonso, Calatrava, Vega, Perez Hubert(10)

B: Rochus, Vliegen, Pimek, van Houdt, Tieleman, Masso, Daufresne, Norman, Coene, Darcis, Desein, Mertens, Reuter(13)

HRV: Ivanisevic, Hirzson, Zovko, Dodig, Raspudic(5)

BHI: Dzumhur

SRB: Bozoljac, Bjelica, Djordjevic(3)

ZAF: Van Rensburg, Bale, Coetzee, Marsh, Talbot, Barnard, Stafford, de Jager, Godwin, Rosner(10)

Kenya: Wekesa

S: Norman, Allgardh, Eriksson, Bergh. Apell, Nydahl, Vinciguerra(7)

LBN: Hamadeh US: Waite, Matuszewski, Montana, O,Brien, Devening, Thorne, Tarango, Johnson, Ho, Keil, Shelton, Rosser, Wheaton, Gimelstob, Coupe, Ouelette, Langmo, Tikhomirov, Koch, Phillips(20)

CZ: Rikl, Cibulec, Vizner, Dosedel, Novacek, Luxa, Fukarek, Cermak, Jebavy, Vocel, Roubicek(11) Chile: Rios, Cortes(2) Brasil: Kuerten, Ghem, Hocevar, Sant’Anna(4)

Aus: Cash, Borwick, Arthurs, Doyle, Fromberg, Perry, Kerr, Ebelthite(8) Ös: Strengberger, Schranz, Eitzinger, Köllerer, Reissig(5)

RUS: Safin,

UKR: Polyakov P: Cunha

LET: Gulbis, Dzelde(2)

RUM: Pavel, Trifu, Nastase, Hanescu(4)

MAR: El Aynaoui, Alami, El Amrani(3)

VEN: Pereira, Szymanski, Ruah(3)

SLK: Beck, Lacko(2)

MKD: Kitinov

GB: Rusedski, Bloomfield, Bates, Wilkinson, Layne, Gosea(6)

GEO: Gabrichidze, Labadze(2)

NOR: Pederson

POL: Kowalski, Bednarek, Peliwo(3)

FIN: Rahnasto, Ketola, Kiiski(3)

ARG, Saad, Albano, del Rio(3)

UZB: Ogorodov, Kutsenko, Dustov, Istomin(4)

HAI: Agenor

ECU: Lapentti

BAH: Smith

HUN: Koves

JAP: Motomura

ISR: Ran

BUL: Stanoychev, Lazov(2)

PUR: Frontera

UAE: Mahmoud

KAZ: Schukin, Korolev(2)

MON: Arneodo

ATP · Boris Becker · Marcelo Rios · Roger Federer · Sander Groen · Wimbledon · Yevgeny Kafelnikov

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