Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury beat Li Tu and and Dane Sweeny 6-4 6-4 on John Cain Arena to advance to the quarter finals in the doubles tournament at the Australian Open in Melbourne for the third consecutive year.
Ram and Salisbury dropped just one point behind their first serve and hit just 21 winners to 3 unforced errors. They earned a break in each set.
Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell fired 27 winners and earned their only break of the match in the second set to beat Raven Klaasen and Ben McLachlan 7-6 (7-3) 6-3. The first set went on serve en route to the tie-break. Ebden and Purcell earned two mini-breaks to open up a 5-1 lead. Klaasen and McLachlan pulled one mini-break back for 3-5, but Ebden and Purcell won the final two points to close the tie-break 7-3. The Aussie team won the second set 6-3 with their only break in the second game.
Ebden and Purcell set up a quarter final match against Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski, who hit 22 winners and won 81% of their first points en route to a 6-3 6-4 win over Marcos Giron and Soonwoo Kwon. The Dutch and British team earned a break in each set.
