Salisbury becomes a big noise by making first major doubles final

Joe Salisbury, now Britain’s leading doubles player, is a politely spoken 27-year-old who learned his game a lob or two from the National Tennis Centre at Roehampton. Since leaving the University of Memphis in 2015, he has not found it easy to pick up the yelping, fist-pumping customs of the modern game.

Yet that has changed after close instruction from Louis Cayer, the Svengali at the heart of the British doubles revival. Salisbury and Rajeev Ram, his equally understated American partner, have reimagined themselves as rowdy self-encouragers. The results have followed, culminating in a win yesterday that has carried them into the final of the Australian Open.

“I don’t think for either of us it comes naturally,” Salisbury said.

Career high: Joe Salisbury has risen to a doubles world ranking of No9

“We are both more calm than fiery, but we definitely play better when we are like that. I need that high energy and intensity. We both do.

“It’s a huge thing, and something which I maybe didn’t appreciate as much earlier in my career. We have learned to win when we are not playing our best.”

Salisbury and Ram needed all their spirit against a pair of wacky Kazakhs – Alexander Bublik and Mikhail Kukushkin – who took the first set before blowing their lead in a cloud of service errors. Bublik served no fewer than eight doublefaults in his last two service games, which was enough to hand over the victory by a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 scoreline.

Salisbury, having lifted his world ranking to a career high of No9, will now look forward to his first major final on Sunday against the unseeded American pair of Luke Saville and Max Purcell.