The month of February provided a host of highlights, with players aged 12 to 35 winning titles in Australia, North and South America and Europe. In addition, college tennis crowned three new national indoor champions and a trio of former collegiate stars earned ATP Challenger titles.
Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury
Former collegians who have had notable doubles success on the ATP tour, former Illinois star Ram and former Memphis star Salisbury took their partnership to the next level last month, capturing the Australian Open men’s doubles championship. Ram, 35, and Salisbury, 27, who played all four majors together last year and qualified for the ATP Finals, were seeded No. 11 in Melbourne. The American-British pair defeated the Australian wild card team of Luke Saville and Max Purcell 6-4, 6-2 in the final to give Salisbury his first and Ram his second major title. Ram won the mixed doubles title in Australia in 2019.
Elvina Kalieva
Kalieva played only one tournament in January, falling in the qualifying of a $25,000 tournament in Florida. Last month, the 16-year-old won the second tournament she played this year, the ITF Grade A Banana Bowl in Brazil, dropping only one set in six matches. Seeded No. 8, Kalieva defeated unseeded Leyre Romero Gormaz of Spain 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 in the final and moved to an ITF World Junior ranking career-high of 27 with the title. No. 3 seed Hanwen Li of China won the boys Banana Bowl title when top seed Natan Rodrigues of Brazil retired trailing 6-4.
This Article Is Available Only to Recruiting Advantage members
Please log in to access premium TennisRecruiting.net content.
