John Peers

Born to former WTA athlete Elizabeth Little, it was no surprise that John Peers would have the opportunity to explore tennis professionally. Both he and his sister have followed in their mother's footsteps, with Sally Peers an Australian representative at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

John proved himself independent of his mother's name, establishing a name for himself in tennis as early as in his high school years, where he would lead the Mentone Grammar School to two premierships.

At just 13 years old, John joined the professional circuit where he would go on to become one of Australia's most successful men's doubles athletes in the Open Era.

John is a four-time grand slam doubles finalist, reaching the final round at every grand slam except the French Open, where he has produced a best result of a quarter-final appearance. He reached consecutive finals at Wimbledon and the US Open alongside Jamie Murray in 2015.

He clinched his maiden grand slam doubles title in 2017 alongside long-time Finnish partner Henri Kontinen. Together, they won the 2017 Australian Open over American brothers Mike and Bob Bryan, 7-5 7-5.

Kontinen and Peers have also competed at two ATP World Tour Finals, held in London after the conclusion of all other tournaments for the calendar year. They were back-to-back champions of the doubles events in 2016 and 2017.

This partnership produced three other Masters 1000 titles, won between 2016-18, all on hard courts. They have 13 other titles on the ATP Tour, previously winning 13 doubles titles on the ATP Challenger and Futures tours. Despite winning an ITF Tournament at thirteen-years-old, he never competed once he joined the ATP Tour.

John achieved a career-high doubles ranking of world number two in 2017, which he held for 22 weeks.

He made his Davis Cup debut for Australia in the doubles event alongside Lleyton Hewitt, where they faced Team USA, playing the Bryan Brothers. John has been a part of the Australian Davis Cup team ever since.

John made his Olympic debut at Rio 2016, joining forces with Chris Guccione. They were defeated in the first round by Argentinian duo Juan Martin Del Potro and Maximo Gonzales, 6-4, 7-5.

As a member of the Australian ATP Cup team, John won every match he played at round robin of the inaugural tournament in 2020. The team was eventually defeated by Spain in the semi-finals, 3-0. John reprised his role as a doubles player in the team at the second ATP tournament in 2021, where Australia was unable to proceed to the semi-final.

With a decade of professional experience and 27 career titles to his name, John made his second Olympic appearance at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games, competing in both the men's doubles alongside Max Purcell and the mixed doubles with Ash Barty.

In the men's doubles tournament John and Max would fall in their opening match, defeated by American pair Krajicek and Sandgren.

John would find much more success in the mixed doubles, alongside decorated teammate Ash. The pair would open their tournament by defeating Argentinian pair Podoroska and Zeballos in straight sets, following this by defeating a strong Greek pairing including Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarter-finals.

Despite disappointment following a defeat to ROC pair Pavlyuchenkova and Rublev in the semi-finals, John and Ash claimed Olympic bronze, after Novak Djokovic withdrew from the tournament. This being John's first Olympic medal, Australia's first medal in mixed doubles and the first tennis bronze since 2004.

In 2021, John teamed up with Slovak player Filip Polasek to win the Indian Wells doubles title, his fourth career ATP Masters trophy.

The following year, he combined with fellow Australian Storm Sanders to win his first major mixed doubles title at the US Open.

John, who lists his hobbies as golf, surfing, cricket and AFL has continued to compete in doubles on the ATP circuit, reaching the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in 2023. In 2024, his world doubles ranking reached 41.

In June 2024, John and British player Marcus Willis lifted their first doubles title together at the Rothesay Open in Nottingham, England. The pair beat Harold Mayot and Luke Saville 6-1 6-7(1) 10-7 in the final.