Grand Slam champions know what it's like to come through in the clutch, and the men’s doubles team of Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury have been doing just that at this year's US Open. After not dropping a set in the first two rounds, the No. 4 seeds and 2020 Australian Open champions have equaled their best career result in New York by reaching the semifinals—and they did it the hard way.
In Round 3, they came from a against No. 13 seeds Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Rohan Bopanna of India, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, in Grandstand, and in the last eight, saved four match points against unseeded Aussies Max Purcell and Luke Saville in a 7-6, 6-7, 7-6 thriller.
Having not been broken in their first two matches of the tournament, Ram and Salisbury responded admirably to adversity in their next two, which included losing their first set of the tournament in Round 3. Holding serve in every game they stepped to the line in a quarterfinal match that lasted over three hours, their two biggest strengths as a team were on full display.
"We just focus on being as energetic and physical as possible, and sticking together and encouraging each other to try and get the best out of ourselves. There’s not much more to it than that," Ram said. "Things happen so fast. You’ve got to try to be present for every single point if you possibly can. We’ve worked hard on that."
Added Salisbury: "We’re both good servers, and especially on a surface like this, we feel confident going into a match that we can hold serve every game. It’s not going to happen every time, but we feel like if we serve well, then we’ll have a good chance. Obviously that gives us chances to break, or at worst, you go to a tiebreak. That’s the main goal when we step on court: to hold serve. So we hope we keep doing that."
Tthe former collegiate standouts—Ram at Illinois and Salisbury at Memphis—have been one of the best doubles teams in the world since partnering up regularly at the start of 2019. This year, they captured their first ATP Masters 1000 doubles title at Toronto last month, and also reached the final in Melbourne in a near-title defense from 2020.
"We’re very pleased that we’ve been really consistent this year. We’ve improved on coming through some tough matches. In the third round here a few years ago, we lost 7-6 in the third and it was a very similar match to [Round 3 in 2021]. We could have easily lost this one, but we’ve done well in coming through some tough matches when we’re not necessarily playing our best and finding a way to win them," Salisbury said.
"We’re feeling good and like our chances... If we need to keep fighting to come through then we will, and if we need to raise our level then hopefully we can do that."
While Ram and Salisbury have enjoyed firm support from the New York crowd over the first four rounds, fan loyalities will no doubt be split when the pair takes on American wild cards Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey on Thursday for a spot in the final.
"It’s not the same to play tennis, especially at the majors, with no crowd. We did it here last year and at the French Open. We were lucky enough to have some crowds at Wimbledon, which was nice, but this is kind of back to “normal” which feels fantastic," Ram said. "I think you’re seeing it, not just with us, but with everybody out here. There has been some unbelievable tennis so far. It’s amazing energy for the players because of the atmosphere and how much better it is.
"It helps you. We were especially lucky to play this match [Round 3] here in America where I feel like we have the bulk of the support, which helps you raise your energy when you need to. Secondly, you realize how much you miss it. I don’t think anyone will take it for granted ever again to play in front of a lot of people who really get into it because we had it taken away from us. You realize how special it really is."
