Robert Farah
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Robert Charbel Farah Maksoud (; born 20 January 1987) is a Colombian former professional
tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
player. A world No. 1 in doubles, he also reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 163 in June 2011. Farah is a two-time Grand Slam Champion, having won both the
2019 Wimbledon Championships The 2019 Wimbledon Championships was a Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. The main tournament began on Monday 1 July 2019 and fi ...
(the first Hispanic duo to accomplish the feat) alongside compatriot
Juan Sebastián Cabal Juan Sebastián Cabal Valdés (; born 25 April 1986) is a Colombian former professional tennis player. A world No. 1 in doubles, he also reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 184 in February 2011. Cabal is a three-time Grand Slam cham ...
and the 2019 US Open. 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), 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 ...
and
2017 French Open The 2017 French Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 116th edition (87th as a Grand Slam) 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 1 ...
with
Anna-Lena Grönefeld Anna-Lena Grönefeld (also spelled Groenefeld; married name Herzgerodt; 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 M ...
. Farah won 19 doubles titles on the
ATP Tour The ATP Tour (known as ATP World Tour between January 2009 and December 2018) is the sole worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) founded in 1990 that replaced the earlier dual Grand Prix ...
, including two at the
Masters 1000 The ATP 1000 events, also known as ATP Masters 1000 tournaments, are an annual series of nine tennis tournaments featuring the top-ranked players on the ATP Tour since its inception in 1990. The ATP 1000 tournaments, sitting below the Grand ...
level, and became world No. 1 in doubles for the first time on 15 July 2019. He 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 represented Colombia in the
Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...
from 2010 to his retirement, as well as at the
2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...
and at the
2020 Olympic Games The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...
.


College career

Farah played college tennis at the
University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...
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, individual ...
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 Juan Sebastián Cabal Valdés (; born 25 April 1986) is a Colombian former professional tennis player. A world No. 1 in doubles, he also reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 184 in February 2011. Cabal is a three-time Grand Slam cham ...
began at Wimbledon 2011, when they defeated the pair consisting of Pakistani Aisam Qureshi (8 in doubles) and Indian
Rohan Bopanna Rohan Machanda Bopanna ( ; born 4 March 1980) is an Indian professional tennis player who specializes in doubles. He attained the List of ATP number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 ranking after winning his first Grand Slam (tenni ...
(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 (; born 26 December 1987) is a Russian-born Kazakhstani professional tennis player. He has a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 39, achieved on 25 February 2019. Career 2006–10: Turned pro, Masters ...
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
Anna-Lena Grönefeld Anna-Lena Grönefeld (also spelled Groenefeld; married name Herzgerodt; 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 M ...
. They lost in straight sets to
Henri Kontinen Henri Kontinen (; born 19 June 1990) is a Finnish former 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 No ...
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 – Mixed doubles, 2016 ...
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
Rohan Bopanna Rohan Machanda Bopanna ( ; born 4 March 1980) is an Indian professional tennis player who specializes in doubles. He attained the List of ATP number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 ranking after winning his first Grand Slam (tenni ...
and
Gabriela Dabrowski Gabriela "Gaby" Dabrowski (; , ; born April 1, 1992) is a Canadian professional tennis player. She reached her career-high doubles ranking of world No. 3 on 15 July 2024. A three-time Grand Slam champion, she won the 2023 US Open doubles title, ...
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 Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...
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 th ...
and
Édouard Roger-Vasselin Édouard Roger-Vasselin (; born 28 November 1983) is a French professional tennis player who specializes in doubles. He won two Grand Slam titles in doubles at the 2014 French Open, partnering Julien Benneteau, and mixed doubles at the 2024 ...
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.


2022-23: Two Masters finals, Retirement

Farah made his last ATP tour-level professional appearance at the
2023 US Open (tennis) The 2023 US Open was the 143rd edition of tennis' US Open (tennis), US Open and the fourth and final Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam event of the year. It was held on outdoor hard courts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Ne ...
with Cabal where they lost in the second round.


Personal life

Farah 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 retired tennis player (not recognized at professional level). His sister is a former professional tennis player Romy Farah. In 2010, Robert became a professional tennis player.


Controversies

In July 2018, Farah was given a suspended three months ban and fined £3,800 for promoting a gambling website on his Twitter account. 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. 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 2023 US 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 Tennis players 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 for Colombia Tennis players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Pan American Games gold 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 Colombian expatriate tennis players in the United States ATP number 1 ranked doubles tennis players ITF World Champions 21st-century Colombian sportsmen