University of Memphis Athletics
Former Tiger Joe Salisbury reaches second consecutive Australian Open final
Feb 19, 2021 | Men's Tennis
Former Memphis Tiger Joe Salisbury will look to win his second consecutive Australian Open men's doubles championship along with partner Rajeev Ram in the final on Saturday at 10 p.m. on ESPN+.
The fifth-seeded Salisbury and Ram defeated sixth-seeded Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares 6-4, 7-6 (7-2) in the semifinals on Thursday. The pair will face ninth-seeded Filip Polášek and Ivan Dodig in the final.
After falling behind 3-0 in the opening set, the defending champions converted two of their three break points and held serve the rest of the way to advance in two sets. Their overall record at the Australian Open is now 13-1. Murray and Soares entered the match 8-0 in 2021.
"It was a tough one," said Salisbury. "Very tight match throughout. We got off to a bad start. We were broken, 3-0 down. We didn't play a good service game. I think we were a bit frustrated about that, and I think it was good that we got back on serve straight away. That definitely helped a lot.
"We played really well the rest of that set. The second set was really tight. I felt like they were a little bit on top in the second set, but we knew if we got it to a tie-break we'd have a great chance. Like we have in a couple of the other matches, we upped our level and played really well in the tie-break."
With a win Saturday, Salisbury and Ram will become the first team since Bob and Mike Bryan in 2011 to win consecutive Australian Open titles.
Salisbury was a three-time all-conference player at Memphis while setting program records with 97 career wins in doubles and 50 combined singles and doubles wins in 2014. He was a key member of the first Memphis team to make the NCAA tournament in 2012 and played a significant role in helping the Tigers win a conference championship and reach the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in 2013.
