The quarterfinals of the men’s doubles tournament at the U.S. Open featured six of the top eight ranked teams. The semifinals featured three of those top eight teams, and now it’s down to the final two teams.
American Rajeev Ram and Great Britain’s Joe Salisbury are ranked No. 4 and take on the No. 7 ranked team of Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares. Interestingly, Soares has won this tournament twice in the past five years, first in 2016 with Murray and in 2020 with teammate Mate Pavić.
Ram and Salisbury were in the semifinals last year but lost in two tough, long sets to the eventual runner-ups in Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektić.
It has been a bit of a redemption run for the duo through the men’s bracket this year. They won their first two matches in straight sets pretty easily, then faced a few challenges going to a third set in the third round and the quarterfinals. But they found their groove in the semifinals with a victory in straight sets.
Ram and Salisbury have been laser-focused and on a mission to take home the U.S. Open doubles championship after coming short last year.
The duo won the Australian Open in 2020, but have not been able to capture another major championship together.
A win for Soares and Murray would give Soares his fourth double’s titles in a grand slam event, putting his name in the history books with 30 others that have won at least four doubles titles in the Open Era. There also has not been a team or a single player from a team to win back-to-back U.S. Open men’s doubles titles since 1995-1996 when Australians Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodbridge accomplished the feat. This year will either get some history or a fun redemption arc!
