Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram crowned Nitto ATP Finals doubles champions
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Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram have made history, claiming their first Nitto ATP Finals title with a 7-6(4), 6-4 win over fourth seeds Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic.
Having finished runners-up the year before, the US Open champions went one better in Turin this time around as Salisbury became the first British player to lift the doubles trophy in the tournament’s history.
Their win over the Croatian duo completed their unbeaten run at the Finals as they ended another brilliant season on a high.
“That’s probably up there with one of our best matches, one of our best matches as a team," said newly crowned champion Salisbury in his post-match interview.
"I think we’re so proud of everything we’ve done this week. We’ve come through some tough situations, but we’ve stuck together the whole way. I’m so happy, I can’t believe we’ve achieved this.”
The second seeds had to hold off an early break point at the start of the third set, but as the teams battled on to the tie-break, the British American duo won the final four points in a row to take the lead.
Riding high off the back of taking the first set, Salisbury and Ram wasted no time in clinching the one and only break at the start of the second, setting them up for a run at the title. A solid display from the three-time grand slam champions saw them lose just six points on serve in the final set to take an historic win in an hour and 27 minutes.
Salisbury and Ram add the Nitto ATP Finals trophy to their growing list of accolades and is their fourth title of the season – alongside the US Open and ATP Masters in Monte Carlo and Cincinnati.
This year Great Britain had three players in the men's doubles semi-finals for the first time, with Neal Skupski and Lloyd Glasspool bowing out in the final four.
