Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski suffer heartbreaking men’s doubles final defeat

Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski suffered a heartbreaking defeat in the men’s doubles final at the US Open.

The duo were looking to become the first all-British pair for more than a century to claim the title and they had three match points against Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos.

But they could not take any of them and it was Spaniard Granollers and Argentinian Zeballos that claimed a 3-6 7-6 (4) 7-5 victory.

Salisbury and Skupski were looking for their first title together having also lost to Granollers and Zeballos in the French Open final and the Wimbledon quarter-finals.

Addressing the sizeable crowd on Arthur Ashe Stadium, Skupski said: “Horacio and Marcel, starting to dislike you guys. Why not make it Australia, we’ll go again. We’ve had an amazing two weeks. We’ll keep working hard and these finals will come our way one day.”

For Salisbury, it represents a first defeat in a US Open final having won three titles in a row with former partner Rajeev Ram, including against Skupski and Wesley Koolhof three years ago.

Men’s doubles matches are often decided by very fine margins and this contest was no different.

Salisbury and Skupski took advantage of a poor serving game from Zeballos in the eighth game of the opening set, the Argentinian double-faulting twice.

The British pair looked to have the slight edge and, had they managed to break the Granollers serve when great defence carried them to 0-40 at 3-3 in the second set, the end might have come quickly.

But the Spaniard dug himself out of the hole and four points in a row in the tie-break helped Granollers and Zeballos level the match.

Rallies were few and far between, with each team trying to find a chink in the other at the net, and Salisbury and Skupski seemed to have found a decisive one at 5-4 in the third set when they made it 0-40 on the Zeballos serve.

But they were unable to take their chance and paid a heavy price, with Skupski broken in the next game and Granollers serving out the win.