Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury successfully defended their Nitto ATP Finals title with a 6-3 6-4 win over Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos after 69 minutes in Turin. Ram and Salisbury have extended their winning streak at the Nitto ATP Finals inside the Pala Alpitour.
Ram hit a return winner against Granollers’ serve on a deciding point to earn the only break in the fourth game of the opening set.
Ram and Salisbury broke serve in the seventh game to earn their first break of the second set to take a 4-3 lead. The US and British player served out the second set in the 10th game.
Raajeev Ram: “I think the conditions are one thing, but we seem to play some of our best tennis at the biggest events. This is one of the biggest events we have. I think that’s also part of it. We really get up for it. We really get up for it, we really try and peak for these ones and we are really proud of that achievement actually”.
Ram and Salisbury held a record of 20 wins to 16 defeats and were 16th in the ATP Ranking before the US Open. They have won 17 of the next 19 matches since the start of the US Open and won their third title in New York. They won in Vienna and reached the semifinal in Paris Bercy. After their win in Turin Ram and Salisbury will end third in the ATP Tour Live Doubles Team Ranking.
“We definitely did not have a great first half of the year, and sometimes you need a bit of a shock, some tough times to kick you into gear and get you back to knowing what you were doing well, and how you were winning. We managed to do that and we have kept it going for a little bit, which is nice”, said Salisbury.
Following the defeat of Granollers and Zeballos, Austin Kraijcek and Ivan Dodig have ended as the Year-End ATP Tour Doubles Number 1.
