Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram have a second successive grand slam doubles title in their sights after reaching the semi-finals of the US Open.
Londoner Salisbury and American Ram won their first title together at the Australian Open and have been in fine form again in New York.
They faced American duo Chris Eubanks and Mackenzie McDonald in the last eight and survived a close second set to win 6-2 7-6 (5).
💪 @joesalisbury92 & @RajeevRam reach the #USOpen semi-finals Brilliant performance from Joe & Rajeev to beat Chris Eubanks & Mackenzie McDonald 6-2, 7-6(5) and take a step closer to the title #BackTheBrits 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/23fgI26pUH — LTA (@the_LTA) September 6, 2020
A Salisbury double fault on break point in the eighth game left the third seeds in trouble and they trailed 5-2 but recovered to prevail on a tie-break.
Salisbury said: “I’m just happy we got through in two sets. They started playing really well and we just managed to scrape through the tie-break.”
Being based on different continents meant Salisbury and Ram did not practice together at all during the hiatus but that has not proved to be a problem.
“We didn’t play at all together until we got to New York a few weeks ago,” Salisbury said. “It’s not too much of a big deal. We’ve been playing together for over a year and a half now so it didn’t take too long to get back into things once we got back on court together.”
Remember to support our very own #JoeSalisbury who will be battling hard at the @usopen with partner #RajeevRam 💪 Good luck Joe! #SurreyTennis pic.twitter.com/UkxWKRLbmF — Surrey.Tennis (@surrey_tennis) September 1, 2020
The pair have now won nine straight matches at the slams across eight months, and will be looking to extend that to 11.
Salisbury, 28, is happy to be able to draw on their Melbourne experience, saying: “I think it definitely will help.
“This is only my third grand slam semi-final, so obviously it helps being in this situation before and getting through the semis and the final in Australia. It does seem a long time ago but it’s great to keep the streak going.”
