US OPEN

September 6, 2025

Joe Salisbury

Neal Skupski

Press Conference

GRANOLLERS-ZEBALLOS/Salisbury-Skupski

3-6, 7-6, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, great tournament. Obviously not the result that you wanted. Tough three-setter. Your thoughts on the match.

NEAL SKUPSKI: Yeah, yeah, it's been a great two weeks for us. It's actually been a good U.S. swing. We've won a lot of matches, beaten some very good teams. We came here with a lot of confidence. Yeah, we've come up against another, Granollers and Zeballos, who we played in the French Open final.

Yeah, very close today. Very tough kind of emotions right now, but I know we'll probably look back at it and see where we could have done better. This sport, there's fine margins in the sport. If anybody is watching today, hopefully they obviously enjoyed the match, hopefully, and enjoyed the spectacle of doubles, and it was well-supported today on Arthur Ashe.

Yeah, difficult one to take, but we'll try and take some positives from it.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. I appreciate you saying you will have to look back, but sort of with immediate reactions, do you feel like there were things you could have done differently on the match points or the break points, or was it just one of those things?

JOE SALISBURY: I think, I mean, in terms of execution of shots, yes. Obviously we could have played better on those points. In terms of anything we could have done differently that was in our control, I don't think so.

I don't think there was anything that, yeah, tactically or how we, I guess, were in between the points. Yeah, we just didn't execute well enough for the chances that we had.

Q. Comparing this one to the French defeat, what do you think was different about this, or what worked better in this one compared to that one, or do they feel pretty similar in the end?

NEAL SKUPSKI: It feels a little bit different. This feels tougher. I think it's a tougher loss, I think. I feel like in the French Open final they were very good at the start and kind of throughout the match, and we were just kind of battling, just trying to stay in it.

I feel like today it was a much more even match. Could have gone either way. I think both teams had their ups and downs throughout the match, but I felt like we all served pretty well. There was very few breaks in the match.

Yeah, I felt like we had a great chance today, whereas I think on the French Open we were kind of just battling to stay in the match.

Q. Obviously a very tough loss to take, I imagine. Maybe for each of you in turn, what are your processes for dealing with such a difficult loss? Are there kind of particular people that you talk to? Does it help to look back and analyze the match or just switch off? Do you like to kind of take yourself away? What are your processes for mentally and emotionally dealing with a loss like that?

JOE SALISBURY: Yeah, I think probably for a while we'll forget about it and move on. Yeah, I don't think we'll talk about it too much, at least not today or maybe -- yeah, I think we'll probably give it a few days before we do any kind of analysis or looking at the match.

I mean, I think, yeah, obviously we've got a great support team with our coaches and our girlfriends and friends and family and everything. I think we're very lucky that we have so many people to support us. Yeah, obviously it's a tough one for them as well. They want to win just as much as we do.

But I think, yeah, maybe at some point we'll look back at the match and see what we could have done to get over the line, but I think at the moment, yeah, I think trying to be -- I guess trying to be proud of our performance. I think obviously if we had won one more point we would have been very happy and won the title and said it was a great performance, as well.

We did everything we could. We competed well. I don't think there's anything we could have done differently. So I think, yeah, trying to be proud of how we competed and fought until the end, and it was literally just one point, so...

Q. You have had a great season, as you said on court, even though you haven't managed to get over the line in terms of winning a title. Does this make you even more determined to win a Grand Slam title together?

NEAL SKUPSKI: Yeah, I would hope so. Obviously we've come close to winning Grand Slams already this year. I think at the start of the season we knew that we would be a great team, but it didn't start too great, even though we were putting the work in.

But I guess something clicked halfway through the season. We got on a roll and confidence came. Yeah, I think this will spur us on to keep working hard. There's still a lot to work for the rest of the season. Hopefully we can make the end-of-year Finals in Turin. That's a big goal of ours.

Yeah, there's still Masters events to be had, and yeah, we'll keep pushing. Hopefully we can finish the season on a high. But, yeah, so far it's been a good season. Obviously we haven't won a title yet, but we've been very consistent from probably, I guess, May onwards.

Q. For the doubles game as a whole, just looking wider over this, how would you reflect on the last three weeks and what it's meant for doubles? Obviously you had the mixed doubles, which I'm sure you guys would have loved to have played, but then here, a $1 million first prize, like you said, big crowds. How do you think what the USTA have done will -- how do you kind of view doubles going forward? Overall has it been a positive or a negative, I guess, three weeks for doubles?

JOE SALISBURY: Yeah, I think it's been positive overall. Obviously there was a lot of support for the mixed doubles, and the fans enjoyed it. I think, yeah, obviously a shame that it wasn't more doubles players playing, but I think it was good for the doubles showing that the one doubles team that was in it won the title.

Yeah, I think it seemed like not really -- did seem like a bit of an exhibition event, but obviously it got the fans engaged in watching more doubles. So I think for that part of it was a good thing.

Yeah, I think for the event, the last sort of eight, nine days, I think it's been good. I think there's been good support. I think some of the things they've done, having some of the early rounds or kind of even the middle rounds, sort of third rounds, quarterfinals on the outside courts and picking the timing so the fans -- get more fans coming to watch I think was good.

Yeah, I think on Louis Armstrong the semis and obviously today we had really good crowds coming to watch. I think, yeah, overall it's been positive I think.

THE MODERATOR: Neal, do you want to add anything to that?

NEAL SKUPSKI: No, I agree with Joe. I think overall it's been a success for the doubles the last couple of weeks. Yeah, hopefully we can get an invite next year to the mixed doubles, but I think we'll -- yeah, hopefully -- well, even if it's not us, then hopefully they accept a few more doubles teams, try and showcase their abilities.

Obviously Vavassori-Errani, they won the title. It just shows that doubles teams can perform at the biggest level against the singles players. Yeah, obviously Eric and Stacey have done a good job of putting the doubles on at certain times around, like, 4:00, 5:00 when Arthur Ashe is finished. People have still got the day session ticket, so they're coming out and watching a bit more tennis, and they have the doubles to watch. So that's been good.

I think it was on 11 and 12 or 10 and 11, so you've got courts either side with good crowds, so there's good atmospheres. Yeah, good today bringing a lot of fans out. We had a lot of tickets to give out. Yeah, we filled the place pretty well, especially in the lower bowl. So it was a good atmosphere. Yeah, hopefully more and more things, initiatives for doubles, happens in the future.