Congratulations to Joe on reaching the season end British Doubles No1 spot! A fantastic year, greatly under-reported. Shame on the BBC who elected not to cover any of the fantastic doubles at the World Tour Finals, which included Joe. Just looked at the LTA website at 12:00 noon. Plenty on the Davis Cup, but no mention of Joe's achievement. Another kick in the teeth after his non-selection. All the best to Joe and our other doubles guys who generally go about their business without any fuss or coverage.

An article by Stu Fraser from today's Times:

Joe Salisbury close to grand-slam glory and his Olympic dream

Joe Salisbury, who was ranked outside the world's top 100 two years ago, is on the verge of joining the exclusive club of British grand-slam champions and becoming an Olympian in the process. The little-known Londoner will contest the Australian Open men's doubles final on Sunday with his American partner, Rajeev Ram.  Salisbury, 27, claimed the biggest win of his career with Ram in the semi-finals yesterday, recovering from 3-1 down in the final set to defeat the Kazakh pairing of Alexander Bublik and Mikhail Kukushkin 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Not only does it take Salisbury through to his first final in a grand-slam event - against Max Purcell and Luke Saville, of Australia - but it also secures a career-high world ranking inside the top ten, potentially as high as No 4, if he wins the title here.

The rankings are particularly significant this year, as they are being used as the basis of qualification for the Olympics in Tokyo. If Salisbury becomes Australian Open champion, then it is very likely that he will still be in the top ten by the time the cut-off comes on June 8. This means he would have the luxury of choosing his own partner, potentially Andy Murray, who is not planning on teaming up with brother Jamie because of his stable partnership with Neal Skupski.

"It would be a bonus to be in that situation and be able to choose,"Salisbury said. "I don't know what I would do if that was the case. Obviously I am trying to do that [finish in the top ten] and get even higher. It would make things more straightforward, and playing in Tokyo is definitely something I want to do."

Salisbury played American college tennis for the University of Memphis before turning professional in 2014. After suffering repeated health issues, related to chronic fatigue and a bout of glandular fever in his youth, he quit singles to focus on doubles and it has certainly paid off.

 

Congrats again to Joe on his first grand slam win, and a very good article on him by Kevin Mitchell in the Guardian today.

www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/feb/02/australian-open-men-s-doubles-match-report

I see Farah is now #1 by himself, I assume because while the same points as Cabal these are err from the one less tournament.

indiana wrote:

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JonH comes home wrote:

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In live ranks,  Joe gets a temporary rise to number 3 as Zebellos defending points from last year. I think he has to reach the semis in Cordoba to take 3rd spot back from Joe. 

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He has to reach the final - ie defend his 150 RU points from Cordoba last year to get back to 5430 points.

His live 5370 points ( down 60 ) are based on replacing those 150 points with a best non counter of 90 points. 

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 Ok, cool. Thanks !

Horacio Zeballos+ lost in R1 of the ATP 250 Cordoba doubles.

So this coming Monday Joe will be up to doubles WR 3, behind only Farah and Cabal.

indiana wrote:

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Horacio Zeballos+ lost in R1 of the ATP 250 Cordoba doubles.

So this coming Monday Joe will be up to doubles WR 3, behind only Farah and Cabal.

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The ATP has him at N° 4, behind Farah, Cabal & Zeballos, who's on 5,430 points, 40 ahead of Joe.