Skupski (r) and Fleming are ranked 23 in the latest ATP rankings

Liverpool's Ken Skupski believes he and his doubles partner Colin Fleming can overcome a tough opening game to advance to round two of Wimbledon.

Skupski and Fleming face Frenchmen Arnaud Clement and Nicolas Mahut.

"I think Clement has won the title here in the doubles but he's never played at Wimbledon with Mahut," Skupski told BBC Radio Merseyside.

"It's their first opportunity to play together on grass, but we feel if we can play well we can take them down."

The match is scheduled to take place in the opening week of the tournament, but both sets of players are playing a waiting game until courts become free as the singles matches take the limelight.

The British paring go into Wimbledon in good form, and narrowly missed out on the Aegon International title in Eastbourne last week, finishing runners-up to Poland's Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski, who are ranked number seven in the world.

"It was a fantastic week and it's a great opportunity to get points before Wimbledon and great match practice," Skupski continued. "It was our first ATP tour final in this country and it was a great experience.

"Colin and myself have played really well over the last three or four weeks since the French Open. We went to Nottingham straight after the French Open and won that tournament and beat a couple of top players.

"We went to Queen's and played well there and lost a very tight match against the number one pairing in the world, which gave us a lot of confidence. Then we did really well last week at Eastbourne so it's going really well for us right now.

"We want to keep the ball rolling and we do have a tough draw at Wimbledon but everybody has to be beaten. It's an opportunity to put ourselves out there on the big stage and produce great tennis."

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