Robert Farah and Anna Lena Grönefeld squandered two match points before falling to Dabrowski/Bopanna in the Roland Garros final. Photo: Comité Olímpico Colombia
Robert Farah had a successful Roland Garros tennis tournament, but leaves Paris empty handed.
Robert Farah teamed up with his usual doubles partner Juan Sebastián Cabal for a successful French Open, with a disappointing ending in the semifinal. The Colombian duo went into the favourite grand slam with a tournament victory in Munich – as well as other promising results on their favourite surface – under their belts.
The clay court specialists rallied with ease through the first two rounds but needed an extra set to take the third round. In the quarterfinals they survived a true test, saving match points against the Argentinian-Chilean team Horacio Zeballos and Julio Peralta. Seeded number 16, the Colombians were the highest ranked team left in the draw, but American and New Zealand couple Ryan Harrison and Michael Venus proved too strong.
In the mixed doubles, Robert Farah partnered up with Anna Lena Grönefeld from Germany and the Colombo-German duo rallied all the way to the final. Sadly they failed to clinch the victory, missing two championship points in the decisive match tiebreak. That meant Gabriela Dabrowski from Canada and Rohan Bopanna from India took the title, 2-6, 6-2, 12-10.
Juan Sebastián Cabal and Abigail Spears were playing in their first mixed doubles tournament since winning the Australian Open title. But things didn’t go as planned for the Colombo-American duo who couldn’t repeat their stunt and got knocked out in the second round.
Mariana Duque-Mariño matched her best Grand Slam performance so far, with a third round presentation in the women’s singles tournament. But it could have been even better as she was only a few points away from a third round victory over Verónica Cepede Royg from Paraguay.
The Colombians will now leave their beloved clay court surface behind to prepare for the grass challenge at Wimbledon.
