Ram-Salisbury dig deep for final place at Monte Carlo

Monaco: Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury reached Monte Carlo Masters final in dramatic style as they overcame Rohan Bopanna and Jamie Murray in a semifinal match here on Saturday. The American-British duo of Ram and Salisbury needed a strong performance to see off their unseeded opponents, who had taken the first set with a solitary break.

The top seeds failed to convert the only break point opportunity they carved out in the match but held their nerve to clinch a 3-6, 7-6(4), 11-9 victory.

Ram and Salisbury's comeback win was powered by a strong serving performance. They won 82 per cent (31/38) of points behind their first delivery overall, according to Infosys ATP Stats.

The Indo-British duo of Bopanna and Murray won 74 points in the match to Ram and Salisbury's 67 but were second best at crucial moments on Court Rainier III. Bopanna has a career-high doubles ranking of No. 3 while Murray is a former World No. 1, but the duo was playing as a team for the first time this week.

Ram and Salisbury now face either Colombian sixth seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah or eighth-seeded pairing Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer in Sunday's championship match from 11:30am local time (CEST).

If the American-British duo can lift its maiden clay-court trophy in Monte Carlo it will cap a perfect week for 29-year-old Salisbury, who became the world's top-ranked doubles player for the first time in last Monday's update of the ATP Rankings. He is only the second British player after Murray to achieve that feat.

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