Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury secured their spot in the final at the Nitto ATP Finals at the Pala Alpitour in Turin after beating this year’s Olympic champions Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic 4-6 7-6 (7-3) 10-4 after 1 hour and 34 minutes in the semifinal.
Mektic and Pavic earned the first break in the third game when Salisbury double faulted on a deciding point in the first game. Ram and Salisbury won 63% of Pavic and Mektic’s second service points in the first set. Pavic closed out the first set with a hold at love with an ace in the 10th game.
The second set went on serve with no break points until the tie-break. Pavic and Mektic earned an early mini-break in the tie-break. Ram and Salisbury won seven of the next nine points with three mini-breaks to win the tie-break 7-3.
Ram and Salisbury earned three mini-breaks to win the Match Tie-Break 7-4.
Salisbury has become the first British player to reach the doubles tournament.
“It’s a big achievement and I am really proud of it. Hopefully there will be many more British players after me, but we don’t want to just get to the final. We want to be the ones winning it”, said Salisbury.
Ram and Salisbury will face the winner of the second doubles semifinal, when 2019 Roland Garros champions Pierre Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut takes on Horacio Zeballos and Marcel Granollers.
Ram and Salisbury are tied 1-1 against Herbert and Mahut. The US and British team saved two match points to beat the French team 6-7 (7-9) 6-0 13-11 in the Red Group on Wednesday.
