Australian Open 2022: Joe Salisbury, Jamie Murray and Heather Watson through in doubles

19th Jan 2022 | Source: BBC

Rajeev Ram (left) and Joe Salisbury (right) won the men's doubles title in 2020 and finished runners-up last year

Joe Salisbury and American partner Rajeev Ram reached the Australian Open men's doubles second round as a number of Britons progressed on Wednesday.

The US Open champions, who won in Melbourne in 2020, beat Georgia's Nikoloz Basilashvili and Serbia's Miomir Kecmanovic 6-3 6-3.

Eighth seeds Jamie Murray and Brazilian Bruno Soares saw off Australians James Duckworth and Marc Polmans 6-3 6-2.

That means Murray will face compatriot Lloyd Glasspool in the next round.

Glasspool and Finland's Harri Heliovaara came through their first-round match in straight sets, defeating Spain's Albert Ramos-Vinolas and Argentine Federico Coria 6-3 6-3.

Neal Skupski was another of the British hopefuls to progress alongside Dutchman Wesley Koolhof, with the 10th seeds knocking out France's Benoit Paire and Romain Arneodo of Monaco 6-1 6-4.

Meanwhile, in the women's doubles, Heather Watson and Italian partner Jasmine Paolini defeated Australian wildcards Alexandra Bozovic and Olivia Tjandramulia 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 6-2.