Doubles hero Salisbury targets the No 1 ranking
FoR a modest man joe Salisbury has some big immediate ambitions — buying a flat in London and world domination.
His victory in the australian open final with american partner Rajeev Ram sets him up for both of them, helped along by the £200,000 prize money that he will pocket from this fortnight.
The new world doubles No 4 lodges with his sister and her boyfriend in Peckham, an arrangement that he should soon be able to end. Monetary needs will take care of themselves if he manages to emulate jamie Murray by reaching No 1, something very achievable in the next six months.
‘That’s a fairly short-term goal,’ said Salisbury, after he and Ram had brushed aside australians Luke Saville and Max Purcell 6-4, 6-2.
‘We set some goals at the end of last year. one of them for this year as a team was to win a Grand
Slam, the other one was to finish the year as the No 1 pair.’
Buying his own flat is also ‘on the list’ for 2020, preferably not too far from where he grew up in Putney and Roehampton, his home club.
Salisbury, 27, has overcome plenty of adversity to get this far, notably being held back by repeat bouts of glandular fever, which he still needs to watch out for. He only broke into the doubles top 100 two years ago this week.
While singles remains the gold standard, it should be emphasised his admirable persistence can still be a beacon for British players.
‘i guess it shows even if you’re not winning all the junior Grand Slams or breaking through when you’re 19, 20, that you can still have a very good career,’ he said.
‘it’s still early days for me. it should give a lot of belief to other players what can happen if you keep working at it and have the right support. i barely played for three years leading up to college when i had glandular fever, a lot of injuries. Then i was going to college (University of Memphis), not really sure what i wanted to do, if i wanted to play professionally after, wasn’t making any money. it probably wasn’t until Wimbledon a couple years ago, where i made the semi-finals, i realised the level i could play at. That was only my second Grand Slam.’
Glandular fever finished his plans to play singles, but the improvement in his doubles play has been striking. The experienced Ram, similarly calm on court, described Salisbury’s attributes: ‘He doesn’t
show it outwardly, but he’s incredibly competitive, especially on the tennis court. His ability to rise to the occasion is pretty special. He’s an incredible athlete, too.’
salisbury stated how grateful he was to parents Matthew and Carolyn for supporting him both financially and emotionally.
everything led to yesterday’s match, which saw him and Ram comprehensively outplay the Australian duo, and be presented with the trophy by one of the country’s legends, tony Roche.