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.”
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.