Ram/Salisbury Edge Kokkinakis/Kyrgios In Battle Of Reigning Grand Slam Champs

In Thursday's matchup between the reigning US Open champions and the this year's Australian Open winners, the New York titlists emerged victorious at the Western & Southern Open.

Top seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury edged the Australian duo of Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios 6-7(3), 6-2, 10-8, claiming victory without dropping serve in Cincinnati. The American-British duo saved the only two break points they faced in the opening game of the match but still needed to claim a tight Match Tie-break to earn their first victory since reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals.

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After dropping the first-set tie-break and dominating the second set with two breaks, Ram/Salisbury required three match points to seal the Match Tie-break as the Aussies threatened to come back from 6/9 down.

Behind a 91 per cent (41/45) win rate on first serve, the pair advanced to face Wednesday winners Karen Khachanov and Denis Shapovalov in the quarter-finals.

Holger Rune and Stefanos Tsitsipas also won a Match Tie-Break on Thursday, upsetting fifth seeds and Wimbledon finalists Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic 6-7(5), 6-3, 10-7. The Danish/Greek team converted on three of seven break chances, including in the final game of set two, when a scrambling Tsitsipas lob brought up set point.

Rune/Tsitsipas will next face fourth seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer in the quarter-finals. The Salvadoran/Dutch team finished as 6-3, 7-6(11) winners after a marathon second-set tie-break against Americans William Blumberg and Steve Johnson.

Second seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos also advanced to the quarter-finals with a 6-3, 6-3 win against Grigor Dimitrov and Andrey Rublev, while sixth seeds Tim Puetz and Michael Venus survived a Match Tie-break to notch a 4-6, 7-6(2), 10-8 victory against Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara.