Joe Salisbury Retires: Britain's Doubles Champion Ends Career on His Terms

Joe Salisbury chose to walk away from tennis in the city where he made history. New York, one last US Open, one last run with Rajeev Ram – and then the racquet went back in the bag for good.

The former world number one in doubles and six-time Grand Slam doubles champion has retired from professional tennis, ending a quietly outstanding career that reshaped Britain’s place in the men’s doubles game.

A farewell written in Flushing Meadows

Salisbury, 34, picked this month’s US Open as his final tournament. It was not a sentimental cameo. He and long-time partner Rajeev Ram pushed through to the semi-finals, one last deep run for a pairing that had become a fixture in the latter stages of majors.

The choice of venue felt almost scripted. In 2023, Salisbury and Ram became the first pair ever to win three consecutive US Open men’s doubles titles, a streak that stamped their authority on the hard courts of Flushing Meadows and turned them into specialists under the New York lights.

Now, both men step away together, their partnership closing on the same stage where it reached its peak.

Britain’s most successful men’s doubles player

Strip away the modest demeanour and the numbers are stark. Salisbury retires as Britain’s most successful men’s doubles player of the Open Era.

He collected four men’s doubles Grand Slam titles: three US Opens with Ram and the 2020 Australian Open, also alongside the American. On top of that came two mixed doubles majors with Desirae Krawczyk, underlining his versatility across formats and partners.

Across the tour he amassed 17 titles at tour level, including back-to-back triumphs at the season-ending ATP Finals in 2022 and 2023 – a marker of consistency and quality against the very best.

This was not a flash in the pan career. It was a body of work built year after year, often away from the spotlight that singles naturally commands.

‘Very happy with the decision’

The decision to stop did not arrive overnight. Salisbury has spoken openly about weighing up his future and, crucially, about how life on tour had started to feel.

“I have been thinking about my future for a while,” he said, explaining that he is now “very happy with the decision”.

On Instagram he laid out the emotional core of that choice. “Tennis has been my life for as long as I can remember and I have been incredibly fortunate to have had all the opportunities, experiences and success that I have,” he wrote.

“To be able to travel the world and call playing tennis my job has been a dream come true and I never believed I could have lived the life and had the career that I have.

“I gave it my all and know I can be proud and look back with no regrets.”

There was no hint of bitterness. Just a line being drawn by someone who knows exactly what he has given the sport – and what the sport has given back.

The hidden cost of the road

The polished results sheet hides a more complicated reality. At the start of this year, Salisbury stepped away for three months, a pause that went beyond tactics or form.

Speaking to BBC Sport, he revealed the anxiety that had been shadowing him on tour. He felt it did not significantly damage his tennis, but it drained the joy out of the lifestyle that surrounds it, leaving him with a “feeling of dread” that turned travel and competition into a grind rather than a privilege.

For a doubles specialist, whose schedule can be relentless and whose profile rarely matches the workload, that weight can be particularly heavy. Salisbury confronted it, adjusted, and ultimately chose a dignified exit rather than clinging on in search of one more title.

A career that stands tall

Seventeen tour-level trophies. Six Grand Slam titles across men’s and mixed doubles. Two ATP Finals crowns in successive years. A historic hat-trick at the US Open.

Those numbers will sit beside his name for as long as the sport keeps records. They tell the story of a player who mastered his craft, found the right partners, and turned potential into a sustained era of success.

Salisbury leaves with his legacy secure, his ranking high, and his head clear. The next chapter is his to shape. The one he has just closed already has its place in British tennis history.