Second seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury overcame Olympic gold medallists Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 in 1 hour and 27 minutes to win the Nitto ATP Finals doubles title in Turin. The US and British team finished the tournament undefeated.
Ram and Salisbury have earned 1500 ATP Doubles points as undefeated champions. They bounced back from their defeat against Pierre Hugues Herbert and Nicholas Mahut in last year’s ATP Finals championships match.
Ram and Salisbury have improved to 3-4 in their seven head-to-head matches against Mektic and Pavic, who beat the US and British team in the semifinals at last year’s edition of the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin.
Ram and Salisbury held off the only break point of the opening set at 1-1. Both players went on serve setting up a tie-break. Ram and Salisbury earned two mini-breaks to win the tie-break 7-4.
Ram and Salisbury earned the first break of the match in the opening game of the second set after two double faults. The top seeds held on their next service games, winning 84% of their first service points. They dropped just six points on serve in the second set.
Salisbury is the first British player to win the doubles title at the Nitto ATP Finals.
“I did not think too much about becoming the first British doubles champion at the ATP Finals. Obviously, that’s a nice thing to achieve, but it was mainly about us a team and everyone that supports us. We have got so many people behind us. It’s just a massive team effort and we are just so happy with everything with everything we have done this week. That’s probably up there with one of our best matches. I think we are so proud of everything we have done this week. We have come through some tough situations, but we have stuck together the whole way. I am so happy. I can’t believe we have achieved this”, said Salisbury.
Ram becomes the 18th US player to clinch this title following in the footsteps of Sam Smith, Arthur Ashe, John McEnroe, Peter Fleming, brothers Bob and Mike Bryan.
“It’s certainly pretty cool. There have been so many great American doubles players and so many great players that have won this title. It’s an honour to be on that trophy with them for sure”, said Ram.
Ram and Salisbury won their fourth ATP title of the season following their triumphs at the US Open and two Masters 1000 in Monte-Carlo and Cincinnati. At this year’s edition of the ATP Finals three British players reached the semifinals. Lloyd Glasspool and Neal Skupski lost in the top four.
Mektic and Pavic were chasing their sixth tour-level title of the year in Turin after winning the Masters 1000 title in Rome, Geneva, the Queen’s, in Eastbourne and Astana.
Mektic was seeking his second ATP Finals title after winning this tournament in 2020 with Wesley Koolhof. “Congratulations to Rajeev and Joe. You were really good today. Congratulations and enjoy your moment. I want to thank Mate and our whole box, we had a great week”, said Mektic.
