The first order of business for Great Britain’s Joe Salisbury on Friday afternoon was to win a championship. Mission accomplished.
After lifting a trophy, Salisbury’s next task was to win again to play for another championship. Check and check.
Salisbury, along with American Desirae Krawczyk, continued their march through the mixed doubles draw with a 7-6, 6-4 victory over the American tandem of Jessica Pegula and Austin Krajicek to advance to the championship match at the 2021 US Open. For the Brit, it will be a chance to add to his hardware in Flushing Meadows this weekend, as he and Rajeev Ram teamed up to win the men’s doubles title on Arthur Ashe Stadium. Salisbury and Pegula will take on the team of Giuliana Olmos of Mexico and Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador, who won their semifinal match on Wednesday, in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Not that Salisbury needed any extra motivation for today’s match alongside Krawczyk, but the afterglow from his men’s doubles success could have been dulled a little by going down in defeat in mixed. However, the partnership with Krawczyk has been near flawless this season, with the pair reaching the semifinals in three of the four majors they’ve played together, including winning Roland Garros.
Both teams were sharp on serve in the first set, with no service breaks. (Pegula and Salisbury saved break points in the eighth and ninth games of the set, respectively.) At 1-1 in the tiebreaker, Salisbury produced a crosscourt topspin lob winner over the head of Pegula for the minibreak, the first of four consecutive points Krawczyk and Salisbury won to take control of the breaker before winning it, 7-2.
The only break of the match came in the penultimate game, and, surprisingly enough, Krawczyk and Salisbury did so at love. On his serve, Krajicek started that ninth game with a couple of forehand volley errors at the net before Salisbury once again hit a topspin lob winner to set up triple break point. The break was secured on the next point, and Salisbury held in the ensuing game to clinch the victory.
Krawczyk, who won the Wimbledon mixed doubles title this year with another Brit, Neal Skupski, is now one win away from becoming just the seventh player, male or female, to ever win three of the four Grand Slam mixed doubles championships in the same year. Salisbury is looking to become the first man since 2010 (Bob Bryan) to win the men’s doubles and mixed doubles titles at the US Open.
