Briton Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram suffer ATP Finals loss to set up must-win final group game

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Joe Salisbury, Britain’s sole representative at the ATP Finals, suffered a dent to his tournament ambitions as he and Rajeev Ram lost in straight sets to Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic on Tuesday night. 

It was a repeat of their encounter at the semi-finals of the US Open and, as in New York, the Dutch-Croatian duo took the first set on a tiebreak before easing clear in the second set for an increasingly one-sided 7-6, 6-0 victory. 

Both pairings had got off to a winning start in their opening matches in London, impressive in the case of Salisbury and Ram as they had only practised for the first time together on the day before the tournament start. 

The duo had been ruled out of the preceding Paris Masters and Salisbury sent home for a 14-day quarantine period despite a trio of negative Covid tests after coming in contact with someone with the virus. 

There was little suggestion of rust between the 28-year-old and his 36-year-old American opponent in match one against Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo. 

But against Koolhof and Mektic, they did well to stay in the first set despite managing to win just 36% on their second serve in contrast to 67% from the pair on the other side of the net.

Salisbury and Rahm qualified for the ATP Finals for the first time last year but failed to win a match in their group.

On the eve of his second showing at the O2, Salisbury admitted: “I think there was a little bit of pressure as the only Brit.  “I think this year’s different – there was a bit of a feeling that it was great to have qualified last year but this time we want to win.” 

The pair will need to replicate their Grand Slam form in 2020 to do that. The Anglo-American partnership won the Australian Open, made the last four of the US Open and were quarter-finalists at the French Open. 

But they will be all too aware they need to raise their game from the second set in particular. Ram was broken in game one after a limp service game and Salisbury was broken too as Koolhof and Mektic stretched to a 3-0 lead they never looked like conceding. 

Salisbury and Ram need to win against Kevin Krawietz and Andrewas Mies in their remaining group game on Thursday to make the last four. 

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