This time last year Ken Skupski was ranked outside the top 250 in the world in doubles while his playing partner, Colin Fleming, was even further down the rankings outside the top 900.

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Since Fleming has finished his studies at university, the British pair have started playing regularly on tour together and have started to gain impressive results at the top level.

While team GB continue to play Andy Murray, Jamie Murray and Ross Hutchins at the Davis Cup ties, I think the 'Flemski' partnership, as they are affectionately known, are ready to take over as the number one doubles players in the country.

2009 has been a spectacular year for Skupski and Fleming. Neither are spring chicks, both of them are in the mid 20s. Like many British tennis players, education comes first and so it has taken them a little longer to decide on their career paths.

Luckily for Great Britain both have decided to give tennis a go, and doubles seems to be the best way to make a career out of the sport.

The pairing have not had it easy. With rankings so low the only way that 'Flemski' could move up the rankings was to play in lowly Futures events together, the third tier of professional tournaments.

They had great success winning four tournaments in a row at the end of 2008, all in the UK, and then they started 2009 by travelling to obscure places such as the Ivory Coast to build up their rankings even further, showing dedication to their cause.

After further success on the futures circuit, the lads entered the challenger tournament in Wolfsburg, Germany. The challenger tour is the second level on the tennis circuit and was a step up from the futures tournaments they were used to.

But Flemski were unstoppable, not dropping a set on the way to the title. Following on from this success the pair reached the final of the challenger tournament in Jersey before heading to the USA to reach another final in Tallahassee and moving their rankings to inside the top 200 for the first time.

The main success of Fleming and Skupski was on the hard court surface and in May this continued with victory in Italy, at the Cremona challenger event. How long cold this run of form last? With Wimbledon fast approaching, the pair headed to the grass court season full of confidence.

In their first tournament together on the green surface, Colin and Ken reached the final of the Nottingham challenger, gaining them a place in the main draw of the prestigious Queens Club grass court tournament in London.

This was the first ATP tour level tournament they had played in, and it wasn't long before 'Flemski' finally made a name for themselves.

After a first round win against a the Romanian pairing of Andrei Pavel and Horia Tecau, the British stars came up against the world No. 1 doubles partnership and multi-Grand Slam champions Mike and Bob Bryan.

Anyone would have forgiven the Brits if they had lost easy to the vastly experienced and successful Americans. But 'Flemski' wanted to prove themselves to be a force and nothing was going to stop them.

An inspired Skupski led his team to an emphatic 6-4 6-4 victory. The media went wild, and although the Brits couldn't repeat their performance in the quarter-finals, where they lost a tight three setter, Fleming and Skupski had arrived.

At Eastbourne another brilliant win over Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa gave the pairing a lot of confidence going into Wimbledon. Unfortunately the tournament was a nightmare and after leading the unknown pairing of Johan Brunstrom and Julian Rojer by two sets to love, uncharacteristically 'Flemski' lost the next three and went out in the first round.

Not to be outdone, Fleming and Skupski came back strongly reaching the challenger final in Pozoblanco, Spain, and then narrowly lost out on home soil in Manchester to Joshua Goodall and Jonathan Marray in the final, before travelling to Canada to win the challenger event in Granby.

Three first round defeats in challenger events followed before team Flemski had improved their ranking enough to gain direct entry into the ATP tour event in Metz France.

After a scare in the second round the British pairing reached their first ever ATP final and went on to probably their biggest success, beating home favourites Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra 10-5 in a sensational tie-break in the third set. A brilliant performance.

The pair now can enter more top level events with their improved rankings. Players can make a healthy living on the ATP tour doubles circuit and Flemski look set to do just that.

Gone are the days of playing Futures events and now the Brits should look ahead to reaching the world top 50 and maybe even higher.

They seem to understand each other well and are great friends away from the circuit too. So if I was John Lloyd, I would let Andy Murray concentrate on the Davis Cup singles and let Flemski lead the country to doubles success in the future.

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