Salisbury and Ram have final sayinoz

Britain’s Joe Salisbury will play in his first Grand Slam final after he and American partner Rajeev Ram defeated Kazakh duo Alexander Bublik and Mikhail Kukushkin at the Australian Open.

Salisbury and Ram, the 11th seeds in the men’s doubles, recovered from losing their first set of the tournament to win

4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

They looked in trouble when Salisbury dropped his serve early in the third set but Bublik served eight double faults across two games, five in the penultimate one, and Ram served it out.

Salisbury, pictured, said of Bublik’s largesse: “That was a bit of a shock. I know he is renowned for going for big second serves. It was very tough serving at that end, but we were surprised he kept going for it. We will take it.”

Salisbury made the last four at Wimbledon two years ago as a wild card alongside Dane Frederik Nielsen, but he and Ram have since established themselves among the top doubles teams in the world, qualifying for the ATP Finals in November.

This is another big step forward, and Salisbury, 27, said: “It’s my first grand slam final, I am really excited.

“We had to fight hard. We weren’t playing our best, but we stayed together as a team, supported each other, hung in there until the end.”

In the final on Sunday, they will face Australian wildcards Max Purcell and Luke Saville, who continued their brilliant run with a 6-7 (7), 6-3, 6-4 victory over fourth seeds Ivan Dodig and Filip Polasek.

Salisbury and Ram will go into the clash as favourites, and the Londoner admits winning a first Slam would be a “dream” come true.