Ram/Salisbury Return To Wimbledon SFs With 5-Set Win

Top seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury are through to the Wimbledon semi-finals for the second straight year following a dramatic, five-set victory Wednesday at The Championships. The American-British pairing outlasted 12th seeds Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, 6-3, 6-7(1), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4.

Ram-Salisbury sealed victory with their fourth break of the match in its final game, confirming their progress to their seventh Grand Slam semi-final as a team, all since 2020. Champions at the 2020 Australian Open and the 2021 US Open, the pair is bidding for its first final at doubles World No. 1 Salisbury's home major.

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The top seeds created the bulk of the chances in the three-hour, 17-minute contest, finishing four-of-nine on break points while dropping serve just once on three break points against. But their French opponents dominated the second-set tie-break and capitalised on their lone break of the match in the fourth set to force a decider on No. 2 Court.

Late in the second set, Ram-Salisbury thought they earned a break of serve to move ahead 6-5, but a successful challenge saw the call overturned, giving the Frenchmen new life. While Mahut and Roger-Vasselin used that momentum to run away with the ensuing tie-break, Ram-Salisbury snapped back to take the first five games of the third set.

After surviving the five-set test, Ram-Salisbury will meet 14th seeds Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell in a rematch of this year's Australian Open semi-finals. The Australians won that match 6-3, 7-6(9) before falling to countrymen Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios in the final.

Ebden/Purcell— who won three five-setters to open their Wimbledon campaign — enjoyed straightforward progress in their Wednesday quarter-final.

They eased past seventh seeds John Peers and Filip Polasek 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 to reach their fifth tour-level final of the season. Ebden/Purcell converted on four of their nine break chances in the match while saving all six break points against them.

Both semi-finalists are seeking their second tour-level titles of the season. Ebden/Purcell were victorious in Houston, claiming their first ATP Tour title as a team in April, while Ram/Salisbury won the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters later that same month. The top seeds have won six tour-level titles since teaming up in 2019.

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