GB's Salisbury & Skupski into US Open doubles final
British pair Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski continue their pursuit of a first men’s doubles Grand Slam crown by reaching the US Open final.
British pair Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski continue their pursuit of a first men’s doubles Grand Slam crown by reaching the US Open final.
When JJ Tracy was going through the process of figuring out which university he would attend, the product of Ann Arbor, Michigan and Hilton Head, South Carolina visited Ohio State University. His host on the trip was Robert Cash, whom he had crossed paths with in the juniors but never played against or with.
“Usually because I wouldn’t make it that far in the tournaments,” Tracy said.
“No, he’s not giving himself credit,” Cash, from New Albany, Ohio, quickly added.
Both Americans laughed. Today, they are close friends and doubles partners on the ATP Tour who are into the semi-finals of the US Open, trying to become the only All-American men’s doubles team to claim the title this century besides twins Bob and Mike Bryan.
But the former Buckeyes’ bond truly began to form on that visit before they were teammates.
“I just realised how down to earth JJ was. It’s kind of rare in tennis,” Cash said. “I felt like we had a connection off the rip. We were very similar in a lot of ways. He was very cool, very funny, meshed with the team extremely well on his visit and then when he started school, he worked harder than everybody else and that’s what I really admired about him.
“He tried so hard on the court and was an unbelievable teammate, unbelievable friend. I just think that we get along so well off court and on court, and it helps us both ways.”
Cash’s longtime dream has been to go to medical school and eventually become a surgeon and his partner, Tracy, studied finance at Ohio State.
“Never really got to get a big head about any special finance major because we had a couple doctors on the team,” Tracy joked.
The pair’s professional journey nearly was over before it began. In the 2024 NCAA Doubles Championship, Cash and Tracy faced two match points in the semi-finals. Had they let slip one of those points, Cash would have fully focused on medical school applications and Cash would have put his energy into singles.
Instead, they won the tournament and earned a US Open wild card. They also were awarded a wild card into the Hall of Fame Open, reaching their first ATP Tour final there. The Americans made enough progress on the ATP Challenger Tour at the end of the season that they decided to forge forward together and Cash put his dream of becoming a surgeon on pause.
This year they won their first tour-level title in Los Cabos and with their semi-final run in New York are 11th in the PIF ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings.
“It’s unbelievable. I was playing singles back then, but never in a million years would I go play a 15K or a Challenger in singles and trade it for this. I mean, this is unbelievable,” Tracy said. “It’s been super special to see us climb the ranks, from winning our first Challenger tournament to stringing a few of them together, making our first ATP appearance and Los Cabos, getting our first title.
“We were getting interviewed some in Los Cabos and I kept saying that our goal is to win one of every level of tournament. We’ve knocked out everything except 500, 1,000 and this, so this would be a good one to knock off.”
A clear reason behind the Americans’ success is how well they get along and work together. They don’t just merge together well in terms of their games, but also their personalities.
“He’s just really easy to be around. He’s always got a good attitude, great energy,” Cash said. “People feed off of him, and nothing really brings him down, so he’s always got a smile on his face, bringing people, putting smiles on people’s faces around him, and such an easy guy to be around.”
Tracy said: “[He is a] very good leader off the court, on the court. There’s been times in my life I was down, there are times I’m down, he’s always knocking on my door saying, ‘What’s the deal, dude? What’s good?’ He’s always trying to pick me back up. He led all through college as a teammate, as a friend.”
When Cash and Tracy advanced to the last four on Wednesday evening, countryman Ben Shelton posted his congratulations on Instagram Stories: “Hype for these boys”. They were all in college at the same time.
“I thought it was very nice of him, the college crew kind of sticks together. That guy absolutely is crushing it. He hit the ground running. He’s a super, super nice guy off court. Very humble, very grounded, and he’s been nothing but supportive and nice to JJ and I off the court,” Cash said. “He didn’t have to do that. He’s Top 10 in the world in singles. He doesn’t have to give us the time of day, but he’s such a nice guy off the court, and we’re really appreciative of that.”
The former college standouts know their job is not yet done. Cash and Tracy return to the court Thursday to face this year’s Roland Garros champions Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos for a place in the final.
“Our coach has been on us all the time about it off the court. He tells us to stay in the dirt. Stay in the dirt, just don’t go too far in the clouds, look too far in advance,” Cash said. “We’ve got to take it one step at a time. There’s still matches to be played, matches to be won. The job’s not finished, so we need to be happy, celebrate the win tonight. But we’ve got to focus and put all our energy and effort towards the match tomorrow.”
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Another month, more moments of magic on the ATP Tour. From Ben Shelton’s devastating pass in Cincinnati to Julian Cash’s epic scramble in Toronto, ATPTour.com has selected four candidates for August’s Hot Shot of the Month.
At the ATP Masters 1000 event in Toronto, Cash chased to the advertising boards to flick a winner, while Shelton brought the crowd to their feet in Cincinnati, where he fired a bullet pass.
Former No. 4 player in the PIF ATP Rankings Kei Nishikori ditched the double-hander to strike an improvised one-handed backhand winner in his first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting against Camilo Ugo Carabelli in Cincinnati and Kamil Majchrzak ended August with a wild side spin drop shot in Winston-Salem.
Watch the hot shots below and then visit the voting page to cast your vote for your favourite before 12 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CET) on 9 September.
Watch the video and vote:
Americans Alex Michelsen and Reilly Opelka will feature for Team World at this year’s Laver Cup in San Francisco, where they are replacing the injured pair of Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul.
Shelton suffered a shoulder injury during his US Open third-round match with Adrian Mannarino and was forced to retire with the score at two sets apiece, while Paul struggled physically in his five-set defeat to Alexander Bublik at the same stage.
Team World are aiming to recapture the title after Team Europe triumphed in Berlin last year. Michelsen and Opelka will be joined by World No. 4 Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, 18-year-old Brazilian Joao Fonseca and Francisco Cerundolo, under the leadership of Andre Agassi.
Spearheaded by captain Yannick Noah, Team Europe will feature Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev, Holger Rune, Casper Ruud, Jakub Mensik and Flavio Cobolli. The tournament takes place from 19-21 September at Chase Center.
Michelsen, who competed in the past two editions of the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF last year, will make his Laver Cup debut, while Opelka returns for the first time since 2021.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Carlos Alcaraz has reached the semifinals of the US Open without dropping a set and is producing a level of tennis that has satisfied even the most demanding members of his team.
Juan Carlos Ferrero’s analysis of the current campaign highlights the maturity the No. 2 in the PIF ATP Rankings is displaying on court, both in terms of his solidity and the way he is handling his emotions during key moments. The coach, who has been alongside Alcaraz since his early days, is seeing very clear signs that his player is now taking another stride in his competitive evolution.
“It’s true that we’ve always known that he was very good in terms of his tennis, but the truth is that mentally I believe he’s better than ever, in terms of concentration and solidity,” said Ferrero on Wednesday. “I’d say that at this tournament he’s starting to reach what maybe we can see as the huge potential he has. We know that technically he’s very, very, very good, and we’ve always worked on that consistency regarding the little ups and downs.
“Despite the experience he has, he’s still very young, so he’s still in the process of maturing and improving. But that’s what we ask of him and what we’re practising. Little by little he’s shown glimpses of improvement and perhaps this tournament is where it’s been the most evident. He’s making around five, six, seven unforced errors in the whole set and I think that’s the big difference compared to other tournaments.”
Looking back and comparing today’s Alcaraz to the one that claimed the title in New York three years ago, when he took down Casper Ruud to win the first major of his career and simultaneously become the youngest World No. 1 in history, is somewhat inevitable.
“I’d say that he’s improved everything,” said Ferrero. “In terms of maturity he’s improved so much and mentally he has a much better understanding that tough situations are where you have to produce your best level. The serve and forehand are also much better. If a player hasn’t improved at all in three years… the coach is very bad.
“He has incredible skills and is on an incredible trajectory. Whatever you ask him to do, he achieves it very quickly. That’s good and bad at the same time because you can get overconfident. Like any player, you really have to stay on top of that.”
CARLITOS 👉 SEMI-FINALS ❤️🔥@usopen | #USOpen pic.twitter.com/KN2YOLfM8f
— ATP Tour (@atptour) September 2, 2025
After Wimbledon, the team had a vital conversation about priorities. Jannik Sinner took the spoils in a four-set final to win his first title at the All England Tennis Club, but it was also a valuable lesson for Alcaraz.
“Team chats are often important,” noted Ferrero. “In that chat we talked a bit about the Wimbledon final, his feelings about it, what we saw, the things that clearly had to improve, how we should approach the US swing and so on. Situations that are normal within the team.
“I think it was a very interesting, very positive chat, and he was very clear about things, as were we. It helped him in terms of being very motivated for the rest of the year.”
That motivation is in no doubt; after the summer, Alcaraz reappeared to take the title in Cincinnati and has thus far cruised to the semi-finals of the US Open. It is a very different scenario a year ago, when he struggled to move on from Olympic gold slipping through his fingers at Paris 2024.
“This swing is very different to last year, he’s arrived here feeling much fresher,” explained the 22-year-old’s coach. “That rest and those holidays really served him well after a month and a half that was pretty stressful with Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Those holidays are necessary for him to reset his mind, to be with his people and to be at a mental level where he can continue to compete at the highest level.”
That ‘highest level’ will be absolutely necessary on Friday, when Novak Djokovic will be on the other side of the net and quite probably give the Spaniard his sternest test so far at the final Grand Slam event of the year.
Editor’s note: This story was translated from ATPTour.com/es
[NEWSLETTER FORM]If anyone is to derail Jannik Sinner’s title defence at the US Open, it will require courage and conviction in equal measure. A man rediscovering both in spades is his semi-final opponent Felix Auger-Aliassime.
The No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, Sinner arrives in the last four in New York riding a 26-match unbeaten run at the hard-court majors, having used his relentless ballstriking to move through the field with icy precision. Yet Auger-Aliassime has rediscovered his spark at the season’s final major, stringing together three upset wins to return to the semi-finals at a major for the first time since 2021.
The Canadian’s explosive brand of tennis has been key in his campaign so far, but against Sinner, patience will prove just as critical as power. Despite the scale of the task, Auger-Aliassime cuts a relaxed figure.
“I mean, strengths and weaknesses… Jannik, not many strengths, huh? A lot of weaknesses in his game,” Auger-Aliassime joked. “What to say about Jannik’s game? He’s been obviously untouchable at times… Honestly, the next match I’m not really going to focus on my opponent more than myself.
“I need to play good tennis. I need to play even better than I did today, regardless of tactically what I want to do. I need to play at a high level in two days and then the next round as well. There is no other way.”
Final four in the Big Apple 🤩@usopen | #USOpen pic.twitter.com/Xd2c4rB6Lq
— ATP Tour (@atptour) September 4, 2025
Auger-Aliassime’s belief has been forged through a testing route to the last four. His run has included gritty four-set comebacks against Top 10 stars Alexander Zverev and Alex de Minaur.
Even though he struck 51 winners against De Minaur, Auger-Aliassime leaked 50 unforced errors. That fearless brand of shotmaking has made him dangerous, but against Sinner, who punishes lapses with clinical efficiency, the Canadian No. 1 knows he can’t afford to give away free points.
Despite leading their Lexus ATP Head2Head series 2-1, Auger-Aliassime is offered a sobering reminder. In their latest meeting in the Cincinnati quarter-finals last month, Sinner steamrolled his way to victory for the loss of just two games, but the Italian is mindful of different dynamics in New York.
“It’s going to be completely different, because [the] conditions here are different,” admitted Sinner. “He had some big wins, so a big confidence boost for him. I feel like [anything] can happen. From my point of view, I always try to look at myself, and I’m very happy to be in the semis of a Grand Slam again.
“I feel like he has improved a lot. Even in one week, you can make big adjustments, and I feel like he did that. It’s going to be a very, very difficult match for both of us. Definitely different, because the Grand Slam, the energy and everything is going to be different. It’s going to be very interesting to see.”
After a hot start to the season that included titles in Adelaide and Montpellier before a final run in Dubai across the opening two months, Auger-Aliassime’s confidence wavered through a difficult mid-season stretch. But in New York, he has recovered his form and steel, rising eight places to 10th in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin as he targets a return to the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time since 2022.
It was during that year he claimed a career-best 60 wins and four titles, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index. Auger-Aliassime enters the semi-final in New York with a 34-18 tour-level record and two titles in 2025.
Sinner, by contrast, has been a model of consistency. Though pushed to the brink by Denis Shapovalov in the third round — rallying from a set and a break down — the Italian has otherwise cruised into his fifth straight major semi-final. With titles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon and a Roland Garros final sandwiched in between, Sinner is now just two wins away from becoming the fourth man in the Open Era to claim three Grand Slam titles in a season and reach the championship match in the fourth.
The 20-time tour-level champion also knows that he must better rival Carlos Alcaraz’s result if he is to hold onto the World No. 1 spot for a 66th consecutive week. The Spaniard faces Novak Djokovic in the first of Friday’s semi-finals.
For Auger-Aliassime, the moment is about seizing opportunity and proving his resurgence is built to last. Against Sinner, fearless ambition meets unflinching precision, and only one will walk away with a place in Sunday’s final.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]World number two Iga Swiatek challenges a journalist after her US Open defeat against Amanda Anisimova, rejecting the suggestion that she needs a “mental break” after the straight sets loss at Flushing Meadows.
Aryna Sabalenka’s consistency at the Grand Slams is unrivalled in the women’s game but, going into the US Open semi-finals, her three titles feels below par.
Amanda Anisimova knocks Iga Swiatek out of the US Open, to gain revenge for her 6-0 6-0 defeat in the 2025 Wimbledon final.
Naomi Osaka says her “dream is coming true” as she made her return to the semi-finals in New York with victory over Karolina Muchova.