Cabal/Farah Aim To Get Back On Track For US Open Title Defence

Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah will be aiming to clinch their first victory since March when they face Jurgen Melzer and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the first-round of the US Open.

The defending champions fell to Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski in the opening match of their ATP Tour return at the Western & Southern Open, leaving them short of match practice ahead of the second Grand Slam event of the year. Cabal and Farah have made only three team appearances at ATP Tour events this year, with two first-round losses.

The Colombians will be hoping to recapture the form that saw them win back-to-back Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon and the US Open last year. Cabal and Farah’s best result this year was a runner-up finish at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC in February (l. to Kubot/Melo).

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Acapulco champions Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo headline the bottom half of the draw. The second seeds will face Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen for a place in the second round. Kubot and Melo will attempt to better their run to the US Open championship match in 2018, when they fell in straight sets to Mike Bryan and Jack Sock.

Kubot and Melo share the bottom half of the draw with reigning Australian Open champions Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury. Ram and Salisbury, who will meet Austin Krajicek and Franko Skugor in the first round, advanced to the semi-finals at the Western & Southern Open (l. to Murray/Skupski).

Ivan Dodig and Filip Polasek will face Western & Southern Open finalists Murray and Skupski in the first round. The fourth seeds, who feature in the second quarter of the draw, will aim to recover from a first-round loss to Pablo Carreno Busta and Alex de Minaur at the Western & Southern Open.

Fifth seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos and sixth seeds Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies will both open their campaigns against challenging first-round opponents. Granollers and Zeballos face Shanghai titlists Mate Pavic and Bruno Soares, while Krawietz and Mies meet Australian Open finalists Max Purcell and Luke Saville.

from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/2D8Io2u