Salisbury eyes second grand slam title as he reaches semis

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.

London er Salisbury and American R am 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).

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 sc rape through the tie-break.”

Being based on different continents meant Sal isbury 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.”

The pair have now won nine straight matches at the slams across eight months, and will be looking to extend that to 11.