Cabal/Farah, Marach/Pavic Extend Clay Streaks At Roland Garros

Third seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, making their first appearance since clinching the ATP Masters 1000 title at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, opened their Roland Garros campaign on Wednesday with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Australians Matthew Ebden and John-Patrick Smith.

The Colombians also won the clay-court crown in April at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell (d. Murray/Soares), and improve to a 10-1 match record starting with that title run. Cabal and Farah will be looking to reach the quarter-finals or better for a third straight year in Paris.

Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic, the No. 4 seeds and returning finalists, defeated Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Mischa Zverev 7-6(2), 6-4 in their first-round match. The Austrian/Croatian duo also entered Paris on the heels of a successful title run, claiming their first trophy of the season last week in Geneva.

The other seeded duo in action Wednesday, No. 5 seeds Nikola Mektic and Franko Skugor, fell to Spaniards Pablo Cuevas and Feliciano Lopez 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. Mektic and Skugor had won the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters title to start off the European clay swing, and were making their team’s debut at the clay-court major.

Cuevas and Lopez are both former Roland Garros doubles champions. Cuevas won here 11 years ago with Luis Horna, while Lopez teamed up with fellow Spaniard Marc Lopez to claim the title in 2016.