The American-British duo of Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury overcame the heartbreak of the previous year's loss in finals, delivering a quality performance to down Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic to become undefeated men's doubles champion in Turin on Sunday.
They defeated their opponents by 7-6(4), 6-4 to end their season on a high.
With this, Salisbury is the first Briton to win the ATP Finals doubles title, while Ram is the 18th American to do so. They have earned 1,500 ATP Doubles Rankings points and walk away with $930,300 as undefeated champions, the biggest doubles payday in history.
Both teams were strong with their serves in the first set. The first set moved to a tie-breaker. Ram-Salisbury dispatched volleys and smashes to win the set and move head. In the second set, Pavic's double faults profited his opponents. From that point, there was no looking back for the American-British duo and they sealed an emotional win.
"That is probably up there with one of our best matches, one of our best matches as a team," Salisbury was quoted as saying by ATP.
"I think we are so proud of everything we have done this week. We have come through some tough situations, but we have stuck together the whole way. [I am] so happy, I cannot believe we have achieved this," he added.
"I do not know what to say," Ram said. "My partner played out of this world today, but I guess that is what you have got to do and that is why he is one of the best around. He saves his best for the biggest moments. I am so proud of us as a team for sure," he added.
Ram and Salisbury, who had lost to Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut in last year's final, now have nine tour-level titles as a team. This was a standout season for them as they won ATP Masters 1000 titles in Monte Carlo and Cincinnati. They also won their third grand slam title at US Open and have a win-loss record of 37-14 this year.
Mektic and Pavic were chasing their sixth tour-level title of the year this week in Turin. They won the ATP Masters 1000 event title in Rome, while they also lifted trophies in Geneva, at The Queen's Club in London, in Eastbourne and Astana. It could have been Mektic's second ATP Finals crown, having won with Wesley Koolhof in 2020.
"Congratulations to Rajeev and Joe," Mektic said during the trophy ceremony. "You were really good today. Congratulations and enjoy your moment. I want to also thank Mate and our whole box, we had a great week."
( With inputs from ANI )
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