Robert Charbel Farah Maksoud (; born 20 January 1987) is a Colombian professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

player, who is a former world No. 1 in doubles. He reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 163 in June 2011, but has achieved most of his success in doubles. Farah is a two-time Grand Slam Champion, having won both the

Wimbledon Championships The Wimbledon Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London, since 1877 and is pla ...

and the US Open in 2019 in men's doubles, alongside compatriot Juan Sebastián Cabal. The pair also finished runners-up at the

2018 Australian Open The 2018 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played at Melbourne Park between 15 and 28 January 2018, and was the first Grand Slam tournament of the 2018 season. The tournament consisted of events for professional players in singles, double ...

, and Farah reached the final in mixed doubles at the

2016 Wimbledon Championships The 2016 Wimbledon Championships was a Grand Slam tennis tournament which took place at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. The main draw commenced on 27 June 2016 and concluded on 10 July 2016. 2016 ...

and

2017 French Open The 2017 French Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 121st edition of the French Open and the second Grand Slam event of the year. It took place at the Stade Roland Garros from 28 May to 11 June and consisted of ...

with

Anna-Lena Grönefeld Anna-Lena Grönefeld (also spelled Groenefeld; born 4 June 1985) is a German former professional tennis player. Competing as a professional from 2003 until 2019, she won one singles title on the WTA Tour, at the 2006 Mexican Open, and reached ...

. Farah has won 19 doubles titles on the

ATP Tour The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third-tier is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. The equivalent women's organ ...

, including two at Masters 1000 level, and became world No. 1 in doubles for the first time on 15 July 2019. He has spent a total of 68 weeks at the top of the doubles rankings, and was year-end No. 1 in both 2019 and 2020. Farah has represented Colombia in the

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organi ...

since 2010, as well as at the

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

and at the

2020 Olympic Games The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

College career

Farah played college tennis at the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

from 2006 to 2010 where he won two

NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championship The NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championship is an annual men's college tennis national collegiate championship sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for teams in Division I. The tournament crowns a team, individua ...

s as a USC Trojan. He finished his Senior season(2010) as the No. 1 ranked NCAA D1 player in the US in singles, while additionally ranked 2nd in doubles. He won the 2008 NCAA Men's Doubles National Championship, partnering Kaes Van't Hof. He occasionally played doubles at USC with future ATP pro Steve Johnson.

Professional career

2011

Farah's consistent doubles partnership with fellow countryman Juan Sebastián Cabal began at Wimbledon 2011, when they defeated the pair consisting of Pakistani

Aisam Qureshi Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (Punjabi, ; born 17 Mar 1980) is a Pakistani professional tennis player who specialises in doubles. He is the only Pakistani player ever to reach a Grand Slam final, having done so in both men's and mixed doubles at the ...

(8 in doubles) and Indian

Rohan Bopanna Rohan Bopanna ( ; born 4 March 1980) is an Indian professional tennis player. His singles career-high ranking was world No. 213 in 2007 and his career-high ranking in doubles was world No. 3 on 22 July 2013. He has been a member of the Indian ...

(9 in the world), in a tight three set match that went to 21–19 in the final set, before losing in second round against American Michael Russell and Kazakhstani

Mikhail Kukushkin Mikhail Aleksandrovich Kukushkin (russian: link=no, Михаил Александрович Кукушкин; born 26 December 1987) is a Russian-born Kazakhstani professional tennis player. Before 2008, he played for his country of birth, Russ ...

in straight sets.

2013

In the 2013 Australian Open, Farah and Cabal made their first appearance in the quarterfinals.

2016

In 2016, Farah reached his first grand slam final, in the mixed doubles at Wimbledon partnering

. They lost in straight sets to

Henri Kontinen Henri Kontinen (; born 19 June 1990) is an inactive Finnish professional tennis player who is a former world No. 1 in doubles. After being forced to end his singles career at a young age due to injuries, having reached a career-high ranking of ...

of Finland and

Heather Watson Heather Miriam Watson (born 19 May 1992) is a British professional tennis player. A former British No. 1, Watson has won nine titles over her career, including the mixed-doubles title at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships partnering Henri ...

of the UK.

2017

In 2017, Farah and Cabal reached their first men's doubles grand slam semifinal at the French Open. In the same tournament he reached the final of the mixed doubles partnering Gronefeld where they lost to

and

Gabriela Dabrowski Gabriela "Gaby" Dabrowski (; pl, Dąbrowska, ; born April 1, 1992) is a Canadian professional tennis player. She reached her best singles ranking of world No. 164 by the WTA on November 3, 2014 and her highest doubles ranking of world No. 4 on ...

in 3 sets.

2019: Two Grand Slam and Second Masters titles, World No. 1

Farah and countryman Cabal won their first ever grand slam men's doubles title at Wimbledon in 2019, defeating Frenchmen

Nicolas Mahut Nicolas Pierre Armand Mahut (; born 21 January 1982) is a French professional tennis player who is a former world No. 1 in doubles. He is a five-time Grand Slam champion in doubles, having completed the career Grand Slam with victories at t ...

and

Édouard Roger-Vasselin Édouard Roger-Vasselin (; born 28 November 1983) is a French professional tennis player who primarily specialises in doubles. He won his first Grand Slam title at the 2014 French Open, winning the men's doubles partnering Julien Benneteau, a ...

in a thrilling 5 set match that required 4 tie-break sets; this victory helped Farah and Cabal to both ascend to world No. 1 in the week following the conclusion of the Championships.

2022: Two Masters finals

Personal life

Farah Maksoud is the son of a family of Lebanese descent. His mother is a teacher at the French Liceo Paul Valery de Cali. His father is a tennis player (not recognized at professional level). In 2010, Robert became a professional tennis player. In July 2018, Farah was given a suspended three month suspension and fined £3,800 for promoting a gambling website on his twitter. Farah would only serve the suspension if there were further breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program. In October 2019, Farah was tested positive for the anabolic steroid Boldenone. He was provisionally suspended from official tournaments from 14 January 2020 and did not compete at the

2020 Australian Open The 2020 Australian Open was a Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at Melbourne Park, from 20 January to 2 February 2020. It was the 108th edition of the Australian Open, the 52nd in the Open Era, and the first Gran ...

. Farah argued that he had ingested Boldenone from contaminated Colombian meat and the ITF chose not to ban him, holding that he "bears no fault or negligence for the violation".

Performance timelines

Doubles

''Current through the 2022 Mexican Open.''

Mixed doubles

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Doubles: 3 (2 titles, 1 runner-up)

Mixed doubles: 2 (2 runners-up)

Masters 1000 finals

Doubles: 7 (2 titles, 5 runner-ups)

ATP career finals

Doubles: 42 (19 titles, 23 runner-ups)

ATP Challenger & ITF Futures

Singles: 5 (3–2)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Farah, Robert 1987 births Living people Sportspeople from Cali Colombian male tennis players Tennis players at the 2011 Pan American Games Colombian people of Lebanese descent Tennis players from Montreal Pan American Games gold medalists for Colombia Olympic tennis players of Colombia Tennis players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Pan American Games medalists in tennis Doping cases in tennis Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's doubles Wimbledon champions US Open (tennis) champions Medalists at the 2011 Pan American Games Tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Sportspeople of Lebanese descent USC Trojans men's tennis players ATP number 1 ranked doubles tennis players ITF World Champions