Cabal and Farah move into London contention with Moscow doubles title

Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah won the doubles title at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow on Sunday afternoon, beating Julian Knowle and Jurgen Melzer 7-5, 4-6, 10-5. Cabal and Farah remain in the ninth place in the race to the World Tour Finals despite adding 250 points to their total, but they also pushed within 110 points of ninth place and within 500 points of the crucial eighth spot.

Cabal and Farah took the opening set after Knowle and Melzer failed to serve it out at 5-4. The Colombian pairing then battled back from a 5-1 deficit in the second to reach 4-5, only to see the Austrian duo finally got across the line to force a decisive super-tiebreaker. Although Knowle and Melzer briefly maintained momentum by seizing a 3-0 advantage, Cabal and Farah strung together 10 of the last 12 points.

This marks the fourth title of 2016 for Cabal and Farah, while Knowle and Melzer were playing together for the first time in three years because of a shoulder injury to Melzer.

“It’s very special to win our first indoor title,” Cabal commented. “We (had) never won more than one match at an indoor tournament. We felt very supported out there. We felt [the fans] were cheering for a high-quality tennis match, and that’s what they got.”

“Of course we’ve been thinking about this,” Farah said of their London bid. “We are in the race and very close. But what’s most important at the moment is winning this title and what it represents. We are very happy to have one more title in our pocket.”

Top 8

1. Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut: 7,075 points. This week: not playing.

2. Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares: 7,070 points. This week: Vienna.

3. Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan: 6,070 points. This week: Vienna.

4. Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez: 4,170 points. This week: Vienna.

5. Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo: 4,130 points. This week: not playing.