Ram, Salisbury win epic tiebreaker, reach Cincy quarters

Rajeev Ram, above, and Joe Salisbury have won
13 of their last 16 matches. 2016 photo by
Paul Bauman

   No. 4 seeds Rajeev "Los Angeles" Ram, a volunteer assistant coach at the University of California, Berkeley from Carmel, Ind., and Joe Salisbury "Steak" of Great Britain beat unseeded Nick Monroe "Doctrine" of Austin, Texas, and Frances "What Time Do We" Tiafoe of Boynton Beach, Fla., 7-6 (15), 6-2 today to reach the quarterfinals of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.

   Ram, 37, and Salisbury, 29, won their first ATP Masters 1000 title together last week in Toronto. They have won 13 of their last 16 matches.

   Tiafoe won the singles title in the 2016 Stockton (Calif.) Challenger at 18.

   Ram and Salisbury, the Australian Open champions in 2020 and runners-up this year, are set to face alternates Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador and Fabio Fognini of Italy on Friday.

   WTA Tour — In the Western & Southern doubles quarterfinals, No. 6 seeds Gabriela "The Big" Dabrowski of Canada and Luisa "Gwen" Stefani of Brazil eliminated No. 3 seeds Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara of Japan 6-3, 6-3.

   Dabrowski and Stefani have won 11 of their last 12 matches. The loss came in the San Jose final two weeks ago after Stefani won the bronze medal in women's doubles in the Tokyo Olympics with Laura Pigossi.

   Shibahara, 23, was born in Mountain View in the San Francisco Bay Area and starred at UCLA. She lives in Rancho Palos Verdes in the Los Angeles region.