British pair eyeing history in US Open men’s doubles final

Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski will aim to become the first all-British pair for more than a century to win the US Open men’s doubles title when they contest the final on Saturday.

Salisbury and Skupski continued their excellent first season together by fighting from a set and a break down to defeat Yuki Bhambri and Michael Venus 6-7 (2) 7-6 (5) 6-4 in the semi-finals at Flushing Meadows.

While Salisbury won the title three times in a row from 2021-23, his partner on each occasion was American Rajeev Ram, and, should he lift the trophy again with Skupski, they would be the first all-British champions since Laurence and Reginald Doherty back in 1903.

It would also reinforce Britain’s strength in men’s doubles after Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool won the Wimbledon title.

“It’d be great to put that right,” said Salisbury. “There’s been a lot of British grand slam titles, but not too many with all-British pairings.

“It’s great now that there’s a couple of top teams and it’d be great to put our names in the history books as an all-British pairing.

“Whatever happens on Saturday, it has still been a very good tournament for us, but we really want to get over the line and get that grand slam title together.”

It is Salisbury and Skupski’s second grand slam final of the season after they lost a desperately close French Open decider against Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos.

And, in a quirk of fate, it will be the Spanish-Argentinian pairing across the net from them again on Saturday.

For Skupski, the final represents a chance to win a first grand slam title on foreign soil – three years after he lost to Salisbury and Ram in the final on Arthur Ashe Stadium partnering Dutchman Wesley Koolhof.

“It was quite a difficult match,” said Skupski. “Obviously Joe won, so he probably felt like he played well, but I didn’t feel like we both showed our full potential.

“But now we’re on the same side together. We’ve got no Brits on the other side. We can really go after (Granollers and Zeballos). We lost to them in the French Open finals, so a bit of revenge is hopefully around the corner.”

There could also be a first all-British girls’ singles final at a grand slam, with defending champion Mika Stojsavljevic and Hannah Klugman both through to the semi-finals.