Australia’s Marc Polmans started his doubles year in the Canberra International where he partnered Alex Bolt.
The pairing lost a tight second round match against Britain’s Joshua Paris and Marcus Willis. That was in an ATP Challenger 150 event.
Back then you would not have imagined what was to come for the 29-year-old.
He would team up with the 2023 Australian Open doubles champion, Jason Kubler at the Australian Open. They managed to go all the way to the final before losing to Christian Harrison and Neal Skupski.
Polmans who has a singles career-high ranking of no. 116 was suddenly inside the top-100 at no. 68.
He would follow up the Australian Open result by claiming a Challenger title in Brisbane with Blake Bayldon.
Another title followed in Brisbane, this time with Jake Delaney.
Polmans now at no. 58, would step up to the ATP Tour where her partnered Mackenzie McDonald in the Houston ATP 250 event, they reached the semifinals.
The next big event would be the ;ATP 500 tournament in Barcelona. Polmans would partner Romain Arneodo, reaching the semis.
That was a sign of what was soon to come.
In May that team claimed the ATP 250 title in Geneva, the first for Polmans at that level. That partnership came to an end when Arneodo suffered a wrist injury forcing them out of the French Open.
Polmans teamed up with Rinky Hijikata at Wimbledon, losing in round 2. Polmans would however reach the mixed doubles final with Storm Hunter.
Polmans then tried a new partner, Lucas Miedler from Austria.
They had know each other for many years, but this was the first time as a pairing.
They hit it off as a team, taking the ATP 250 title in Gstaad, without dropping a set.
It is always hard to back up a title when playing the next week, but Polmans and Miedler have done just that.
After some tight tie-breakers in the quarterfinal and semifinal they romped home in the final.
The title was claimed with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over third seeds Jakob Schnaitter and Mark Wallner.
“I didn’t think when we started playing together we would win our first two ATP [events],” Polmans said. “An amazing start to our partnership. Me and Lucas have just begun, but thankfully there was not another Match Tie-break today, because that could have gone either way. I really like playing with Lucas. I’ve known him for many years, since juniors, so I like being his partner.”
Polmans is the top-ranked Australian doubles player. He will rise to a career-high no. 21 on Monday.