Daniell and Oswald bow out in Australian Open quarter finals
The New Zealand challenge is over at the Australian Open in Melbourne. Marcus Daniell and Philipp Oswald coming up short in their doubles quarter final against 5th seeds and defending champions Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury.
After winning a tight first set Ram and Salisbury broke early in the second to complete a 7-6 (6) 6-2 victory.
There was little between the teams in the first set with Daniell the only player to face break points on serve, twice in his second service game. He was serving directly into the sun and served up five double faults in the set.
The set went to a tie break and after going down a mini break early, Daniell and Oswald got to 5-4. But at 6-6 Daniell was passed by a stinging return from Ram and he served out the set on the next point.
Games went with serve until the fourth game of the second set when the Kiwi was broken for the first time in the match after a superb top spin lob from Salisbury. Daniell was broken again in his next service game to hand Ram and Salisbury the win in one hour 21 minutes.
The serving was the key for Ram and Salisbury who didn’t face a break point against their serve in the match and only dropped six points on serve in the match.
Ram and Salisbury are now through to the semis after eliminating all three Kiwis in the draw. They beat Artem Sitak and British partner Jonny O’Mara in the first round and Michael Venus and his Aussie partner John Peers in the third round before their win today.
By reaching the quarter finals in Melbourne Daniell is projected to climb to 40 in the ATP doubles rankings while Oswald will rise to 37.
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