Salisbury/Ram Edge Match Tie-Break For First Group Win In London

Fourth seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury earned a confidence-boosting Match Tie-break win on Wednesday for improve to 1-1 in Group Jonas Bjorkman round-robin play. Ram and Salisbury avenged their loss to eighth-seeds Ivan Dodig and Filip Polasek two weeks ago at the Rolex Paris Masters with a 6-3, 3-6 10-6 victory in 78 minutes.

They improve to a 39-23 match record on the season, including two ATP Tour titles at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships (d. McLachlan/Struff) and the Erste Bank Open in Vienna (d. Kubot/Melo).

Dodig and Polasek made the first move, breaking Salisbury’s serve for a 3-1 advantage when Dodig’s backhand return was left by Salisbury but landed inside the baseline. When serving for the first set at 5-3, Dodig recovered from 0/40, saving four break points with solid serving. The 33-minute opener ended with a service winner.

Ram and Salisbury took a 4-2 lead with Dodig mis-timed a jump smash in the second set and three games later, Salisbury poached a forehand volley in a love hold for Ram.

Ram and Salisbury got off to a fast start in the Match Tie-break, moving to a 3/0 lead. While Dodig and Polasek recovered to 5/5, it was the dynamic play of Salisbury that made the difference and ay 9/6, Polasek hit a backhand volley into the net.

Dodig and Polasek, who lost to second seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo 10-5 in a Match Tie-break on Saturday, at now 26-11 on the year, which includes the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati (d. Cabal/Farah) and the China Open in Beijing (d. Kubot/Melo).

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