Britain’s Joe Salisbury is one more win from another Australian Open crown after reaching the men’s doubles final at the expense of Jamie Murray.
Salisbury and American partner Rajeev Ram – the defending champions and fifth seeds – won 6-4 7-6 (7-2) against Murray and Brazil’s Bruno Soares.
Defeat ended Murray and Soares’ winning start in 2021 after reuniting.
Salisbury and Ram play Croatia’s Ivan Dodig and Slovakia’s Filip Polasek, who are seeded ninth, in Sunday’s final.
Sixth seeds Murray and Soares won the 2016 title at Melbourne Park and were hoping to match that achievement after rekindling their partnership this season.
The pair, who split after the 2019 French Open, won the warm-up Great Ocean Road Open event in their first tournament back together, but were denied the chance to play for the Grand Slam trophy as Salisbury and Ram ended their eight-match winning streak.
“Jamie and I wouldn’t want to beat each other, but I don’t think there was any kind of added motivation. It’s motivation enough playing the semi-final of a Grand Slam,” said Salisbury.
Salisbury and Ram have reached the final after being unable to practise much before the tournament because the American was in a ‘hard’ 14-day quarantine after arriving in Melbourne.
Later on Friday, 28-year-old Salisbury narrowly missed out on reaching the mixed doubles final. Salisbury and American partner Desirae Krawczyk lost 7-5 5-7 10-8 to Australian wildcards Sam Stosur and Matt Ebden in the last four.
Second seeds Elise Mertens and Aryna Sabalenka won the women’s doubles title by beating third seeds Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova in a one-sided final.
Belgium’s Mertens and Belarusian Sabalenka won 6-2 6-3 to clinch their second Grand Slam title together.
Afterwards the pair – who are both ranked in the world’s top 20 singles – said they would be putting their partnership on “partial hold” to focus on the individual events.
Article courtesy of BBC Sport
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