Joe Salisbury, Rajeev Ram out after fifth-set tie-breaker

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British doubles specialist Joe Salisbury and American Rajeev Ram have been knocked out in the third round at Wimbledon after a marathon five-setter against eighth seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers.

The pair came back from two sets down only to see the match postponed at 5-5 in the deciding set due to bad light last night.

On resumption of play today though, it was Kontinen and Peers who eventually won through 7-6 6-4 3-6 4-6 13-12.

Kontinen and Peers took the opening set with a 7-2 tie-break win after the teams shared a break each.

They took control after holding serve throughout the second but Salisbury and Ram struck back by winning three successive games from 3-3 in the third set.

Salisbury and Ram broke in the fourth set to take a 4-3 lead and could have taken the set at 5-3 but saw three set points saved.

They then had to save three break points when serving for the set and finally took the set with their sixth set point.

The decider went on serve before play was halted at 5-5 last night and that trend continued this afternoon until Ram and Salisbury took a 9-8 lead.

Salisbury was serving for the match but failed to capitalise as Kontinen and Peers broke straight back.

The match continued onto 12-12 and, as per new Wimbledon rules, a seven-point tie-break was needed to separate the teams. Kontinen and Peers took a 4-1 lead, a Peers smash putting the pair in control, and that was extended when Ram volleyed into the net.

The score moved to 6-2, with Peers serving for the match. A second serve was returned long by Salisbury to finish the match after four hours and 33 minutes.

Cover Photo: Carine06 from UK [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

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