Cabal/Farah Outlast Krawietz/Struff To Reach Dubai Final
Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah advanced to their second final of the season on Friday, when they defeated Kevin Krawietz and Jen-Lennard Struff 6-3, 2-6, 10-7 in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships semi-finals.
The Great Ocean Road Open finalists (l. to Murray/Soares) won five of their seven second-serve return points in the Match Tie-break to overcome the German pair in 70 minutes. Cabal and Farah have survived back-to-back Match Tie-breaks to reach the Dubai championship match. The top seeds saved a match point on Thursday to defeat Italian qualifiers Lorenzo Sonego and Andrea Vavassori 6-4, 6-7(7), 11-9.
“It was a close match,” said Farah. “I think they were very aggressive in their strategy. They were going all-out out there… In the Match Tie-break, they gave us a couple of double faults and we were right there, playing well on our serves. At the end, I think we made the difference.”
[WATCH LIVE 1]Cabal and Farah, who are making their first appearance at the ATP 500, are attempting to capture their first title since the 2019 US Open. The Colombians own a 16-20 team record in tour-level championship matches.
In the second semi-final, Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic will face Ivan Dodig and Filip Polasek for the third time this season (1-1). Mektic and Pavic claimed victory against their rivals in the Antalya Open final in January, before Dodig and Polasek snapped Mektic and Pavic’s 12-0 start to the season with victory in last month’s Australian Open semi-finals.