Ram/Salisbury Bolster London Chances With Vienna Victory

Fourth seeds Rajeev Ram/Joe Salisbury continued their winning ways on Friday at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna, edging Marcus Daniell/Philipp Oswald 6-4, 3-6, 10-6 to reach the final.

Ram/Salisbury also moved closer to making their debut appearance as a team at the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals, held from 10-17 November at The O2 in London. Their semi-final win pushed them into sixth place in the ATP Doubles Race To London with 3,290 points. Ram/Salisbury will pick up an additional 200 points if they can take the title in Vienna.

The American/British pair look to improve their 1-3 record in ATP Tour doubles finals this year, having prevailed in Dubai and finished runner-up in Brisbane, Queen’s Club and Antwerp. They await the winner of top seeds Lukasz Kubot/Marcelo Melo and third seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert/Nicolas Mahut.

At the Swiss Indoors Basel, Ivan Dodig/Filip Polasek upset second seeds Raven Klaasen/Michael Venus 7-6(8), 6-4 to move into the semi-finals. They saved set points at 5/6 and 7/8 in the first-set tie-break en route to advancing in one hour and 30 minutes.

Dodig/Polasek, who are in ninth place in the ATP Doubles Race To London, will face fourth seeds Jean-Julien Rojer/Horia Tecau on Saturday. Rojer/Tecau are in seventh place in the Race.