Cabal/Farah Save 2 M.P., Keep Roland Garros Dreams Alive

Top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah faced two match points on Monday in their Roland Garros quarter-final, but the Colombians battled to defeat Frederik Nielsen and Tim Puetz 6-7(10), 6-4, 7-6(7), in two hours and 49 minutes.

Cabal and Farah won two fewer points (131-133) than their opponents, but they saved match points at 5/6 and 6/7 in the third-set tie-break to advance. The 2019 year-end No. 1 doubles team is into the last four on the Parisian clay for the third time as a team. Cabal and Eduardo Schwank made the championship match in 2011.

This is the second consecutive match in which Cabal and Farah were pushed to a final-set tie-break. They needed two hours and 27 minutes to beat 15th seeds Jurgen Melzer and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the third round.

The top seeds will next play recent US Open champions Mate Pavic and Bruno Soares, who beat reigning Australian Open titlists Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 in two hours and 13 minutes. The victory marked Soares' 500th tour-level win.

Pavic and Soares saved six of seven break points and won 68 per cent of their second-serve points.

from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/3lkJWXR