Home Hopes Purcell/Saville Reach Australian Open Doubles Final

Wild cards Max Purcell and Luke Saville became the first all-Australian doubles pair on Thursday to reach the Australian Open final since 1998 at Melbourne Park.

Purcell and Saville held their nerve and were strong on return of serve in a 6-7(7), 6-3, 6-4 victory over fourth seeds Ivan Dodig and Filip Polasek in two hours and 19 minutes. Purcell and Saville could not convert two set points at 6/5 and 7/6 in the first set tie-break.

Two-time former champion Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde reached their third final in 1998 (l. to Bjorkman/Eltingh in five sets). Andrew Kratzmann reached the 2000 final (w/Wayne Black), while John Peers won the 2017 title and was runner-up last year (both w/Henri Kontinen) .

Purcell and Saville, with a 9-3 record in ATP Challenger Tour finals, will next face No. 11 seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury in Saturday’s final.

Ram and Salisbury battled hard to also reach their first Grand Slam championship team final with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Kazakhstanis Alexander Bublik and Mikhail Kukushkin in one hour and 49 minutes on Margaret Court Arena. Bublik and Kukushkin led 3-1 in the deciding set.

Ram and Salisbury, who qualified for the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals in their first season as a team, have a 2-3 record in ATP Tour finals.

[ATP APP]

from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/3aQLjJb