Ram/Salisbury Capture Maiden Team Title In Dubai

In their second ATP Tour final of the season, Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury defeated Ben McLachlan and Jan-Lennard Struff 7-6(4), 6-3 on Saturday at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships to lift their first tour-level title as a team.

The fourth seeds, who reached the Brisbane final (l. to Daniell/Koolhof) in January on their team debut, won 88 per cent of first-serve points (37/42) to triumph after 82 minutes. Ram and Salisbury improve to 11-4 as a team and earn 500 ATP Doubles Rankings points after claiming the title without dropping a set. The American-British duo also splits $177,600 in prize money.

Ram has now clinched 18 trophies from 31 tour-level doubles finals. Salisbury improves to 3-1 in tour-level championship matches after picking up his first two ATP Tour crowns last year: one alongside McLachlan in Shenzhen and the other with Neal Skupski in Vienna.

McLachlan and Struff were aiming to extend their undefeated 2-0 team record in tour-level finals. The Japanese-German pairing defeated top seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic en route to the championship match. Having saved one match point in their semi-final victory over Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Purav Raja to reach the final, McLachlan and Struff gain 300 ATP Doubles Ranking points and split $86,930 in prize money.

Did You Know?
In the semi-finals, Ram and Salisbury defeated two-time defending champions Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau. Rojer and Tecau are the only team to win back-to-back doubles titles since the tournament began in 1993.