Ram and Salisbury won their first Grand Slam title together in Melbourne 12 months ago
Brit Joe Salisbury is another win from another Australian Open crown after reaching the men’s double-finals at Jamie Murray’s expense.
Salisbury and American partner Rajeev Ram – the defending champion and fifth seed – won 6-4 7-6 (7-2) against Murray and Brazilian Bruno Soares.
The defeat ended Murray and Soares’ winning start in 2021 after reunification.
Salisbury and Ram play in the final on Sunday against Ivan Dodig from Croatia and Filip Polasek from Slovakia, who are ranked ninth.
Sixth seed Murray and Soares won the 2016 Melbourne Park title in hopes of achieving that achievement after reviving their partnership that season.
The couple, who split after the 2019 French Open, won the warm-up Great Ocean Road Open event in their first tournament together, but were denied the chance to play for the Grand Slam trophy when Salisbury and Ram turned eight Games win ended streak.
Later on Friday, the 28-year-old Salisbury narrowly missed reaching the mixed doubles Final. Salisbury and American partner Desirae Krawczyk lost in their last four games 7-5 5-7 10-8 against Australian wildcards Sam Stosur and Matt Ebden.
The second seed Elise Mertens and Aryna Sabalenka won the Women doubles Title by beating Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova in a one-sided final.
The Belgian Mertens and the Belarusian Sabalenka won 6: 2 and 6: 3 and together they won their second Grand Slam title.
Afterward, the couple – both in the top 20 in the world – said they would put their partnership on “Teilhaft” in order to focus on the individual events.
