Robert Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal rallied from one set down to beat Pablo Carreno Busta and Joao Sousa 3-6 6-4 10-4 in the final of the doubles tournament at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.
Farah and Cabal played just their second final at Masters 1000 level after finishing runner-up in Miami in 2014. This week they had to dig deep winning three of their four matches in Match tie-breaks after beating Robin Haase and Jean Julien Rojer in three sets, Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo in straight sets and Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares in the decisive set.
Carreno Busta and Sousa earned a break in the sixth game to clinch the opening set 6-3. Cabal and Farah fended off a break point in the ninth game of the second set before converting their third set point in the next game to force the match to the third set. Cabal and Farah raced out to a 4-0 lead en route to winning the match tie-break 10-4.
Farah and Cabal won the 11th title of their career and reached the final at the 2018 Australian Open last January and in Buenos Aires last February.
“This is the title we have been looking for a long time. We have been working hard for it. Hard work pays off in the end and we are really happy about it. This keeps us motivated. Today we started with a certain strategy but it wasn’t working, so we had to change it up. It paid off in the end. We just hung in there”, said Cabal in the post-match interview.
