When the updated world rankings are published on Monday, tennis will have a new women’s No1 in Iga Swiatek, and perhaps a new men’s No1 in Daniil Medvedev. In Britain, though, the real story is Joe Salisbury – the south Londoner who is about to be crowned the world’s best doubles player.
For Salisbury – who is due to play his Miami quarter-final today alongside American partner Rajeev Ram – this moment marks the zenith of a career that nearly never happened at all. Dogged by recurring bouts of glandular fever and chronic fatigue in his teenage years, Salisbury considered giving up on several occasions before his first big breakthrough: a run to the Wimbledon semi-finals in 2018.
“It just feels a bit surreal,” said Salisbury on Monday. “I'm not sure I quite believe it. Until a year or so ago I wasn't even thinking that this was on the radar. Even a few years ago, when I started playing with Rajeev, I remember feeling how special it was just to be on the main tour.”
A tall and sinewy figure, tanned almost mahogany by the American sun, Salisbury is 29 – which means he is still in his infancy by the standards of the doubles tour. Only one man in the world’s top 25 is younger than him, and that is Mate Pavic, the 28-year-old Croatian whom he will dislodge from the No1 spot on Monday.
Salisbury grew up playing tennis and golf at the Roehampton Club, a well-heeled enclave only a few hundred yards from the headquarters of the Lawn Tennis Association. His mother Carolyn – who dabbled in coaching – made sure that all three of her children could swing a racket. But while Joe was good enough to earn a tennis scholarship to the University of Memphis in southwest Tennessee, he admits that “I wasn’t one of the top players or top prospects [on the squad].”
He might have been more of a meteor but for his fragile health. The teenage Salisbury suffered glandular fever at regular intervals, followed by a late growth spurt – carrying him to 6ft 3in – which triggered a series of injuries. Then, when he went out to play low-level singles events in far-flung spots like Togo and South Korea, his old feelings of exhaustion returned.
In a previous interview, Salisbury told the Telegraph that “If I did too much, especially if it was for a few weeks in a row, either training or tournaments, then I would feel completely wiped out, no energy, like how I felt when I had glandular fever. Doubles is so much less physical. Yes, you have to be agile, quick and explosive. But in terms of endurance – of having to play long points and come back and do it again and again – it’s nowhere near.”
Salisbury’s moment of revelation came in 2016. At a small tournament in Portugal, he won only three games against a local wannabe who was ranked No 1,142 in the world. At that stage, he had been existing largely on parental support for a season or two. Something had to change.
Enter Louis Cayer, the Yoda-esque coach who has transformed a generation of British doubles players. According to Cayer, Salisbury’s potential was immediately obvious from their first session together. “He had the raw material: 6ft 4in, legs like this [holding out his hands a foot apart], super-athletic, explosive, good reactions. He just had to want to play tennis and that’s it.”
Six years later, Salisbury is never going to be garlanded with sponsorship deals in the manner of Emma Raducanu. But he is doing nicely enough, gathering almost £2m in prize money to date. Having spent most of his career flat-sharing with his sister in Peckham, he managed to buy his own place in Wimbledon last year.
Coincidentally, Salisbury’s confirmation as the ATP’s new No1-in-waiting came six years to the day after Jamie Murray – another alumnus of the Cayer development system – had also climbed to the top of the doubles rankings. Salisbury acknowledged Cayer’s contribution in a Zoom call on Monday morning, which also looped in his childhood coach Justin Sherring.
“I’ll celebrate properly next week,” said the ever-studious Salisbury. “It’s not official until the rankings come out on Monday. It’s been an incredible journey.”
