Cal coach, Salisbury finally beat Croats for Toronto title

Rajeev Ram, above, and Joe Salisbury beat Nikola
Mektic and Mate Pavic for the first time in five
matches this year. 2016 photo by Paul Bauman 

   Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury's first ATP Masters 1000 title together was especially sweet.

   No. 3 seeds Ram, a volunteer assistant coach at the University of California, Berkeley from Carmel, Ind., and Salisbury of Great Britain defeated No. 1 seeds Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic of Croatia 6-3, 4-6 [10-3] today in the National Bank Open in Toronto. 

   Mektic and Pavic had been 17-1 in match tiebreaks this year, their first together, and 4-0 against Ram and Salisbury in 2021. 

   Ram, 37, and Salisbury, 29, won their first title of the year and fourth overall, including the 2020 Australian Open. Ram collected his 21st career doubles crown and Salisbury his sixth.

    Mektic and Pavic were seeking their 10th title of the year. They won Wimbledon and a gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics.

    Top-seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia claimed the Toronto singles title, 6-4, 6-3 over unseeded Reilly Opelka, a 6-foot-11 (2.11-meter) American.

   WTA Tour — In the doubles final of the National Bank Open in Montreal, No. 5 seeds Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Luisa Stefani of Brazil outplayed No. 6 seeds Darija Jurak of Croatia and Andreja Klepac of Slovenia 6-3, 6-4. 

   Dabrowski and Stefani avenged a 6-1, 7-5 loss to Jurak and Klepac in the final of last week's Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif.

   Stefani won the bronze medal in women's doubles in Tokyo with Laura Pigossi. 

   Also today, unseeded Camila Giorgi of Italy downed No. 4 seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 for the biggest title of her career.

   Pliskova reached the final of the 2015 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, losing to Angelique Kerber. The tournament moved 20 miles (32.2 kilometers) down the road to San Jose under new sponsorship in 2018.