1 February 2020 | Tennis SA

Luke Saville (Cobdogla, SA) and Max Purcell (NSW) are through to the Australian Open men’s doubles final.

Wildcards Saville and Purcell defeated fourth seeds Ivan Dodig (CRO) and Filip Polasek (SVK) 6-7(7) 6-3 6-4 in Thursday’s semifinal, becoming the first all-Australian pair to reach the Australian Open men’s doubles final since Mark Woodforde (SA) and Todd Woodbridge (NSW) in 1998.

Saville and Purcell claimed their first ATP Challenger title together in Bangalore, India in November 2018. Since then they have won an additional eight ATP Challenger titles including the City of Playford Tennis International in January 2019 and reached career high doubles rankings inside the world’s top 80 in November last year.

In previous matches, Saville/Purcell defeated Andrey Rublev (RUS)/Andrew Vasilevski (BLR) 6-3 6-2 in the first round, took out eighth seeds Jean-Julien Rojer (NED)/Horia Tecau (ROU) 7-6(2) 4-6 6-4 in the second round, overcame Andres Molteni (ARG)/Hugo Nys (FRA) in the third round 6-3 7-5 and defeated Santiago Gonzalez (MEX)/Ken Skupski (GBR) 6-2 6-4 in the quarters.

Saville and Purcell will take on the eleventh seeds Rajeev Ram (USA) and Joe Salisbury (GBR) in Sunday’s final in the first match on Rod Laver Arena from 2.30 pm (Adelaide time). Watch live on Channel 9 or via the 9Now app.

Please join us in wishing Luke and Max the very best of luck for the final!