Daniell/Oswald Upset Cabal/Farah In Sardinia For First Team Title

  • Posted: Oct 17, 2020

Marcus Daniell and Philipp Oswald completed an impressive run at the Forte Village Sardegna Open on Saturday, upsetting top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 6-3, 6-4 to lift the trophy.

Daniell and Oswald did not lose a set en route to their first team title, triumphing in their second tour-level championship match together (2020 Auckland). The Kiwi-Austrian team broke three times en route to a 73-minute victory.

“They’ve been the best team in the world for quite a while now, so we knew we had to play a really high level of tennis to beat them,” Daniell said. “I’m really proud with the level of tennis we brought to the court today. I think from the very start we really played aggressively and played well. Very happy with the win.”

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The key was first-serve returns. Cabal and Farah only won 59 per cent of points behind their first delivery, while Daniell and Oswald had a 78 per cent success rate. The third seeds saved two of the three break points they faced on Saturday and they were broken only three times all week.

“Clay I think is not our strongest surface, but still we chose this tournament because we felt Sardinia is such a nice place, this hotel is unreal,” Oswald said. “We had a really nice week and we enjoyed every minute here. At the end a title is more than we could ask for.”

Oswald now has 11 ATP Tour doubles titles and Daniell has five. It was the first triumph of the season for both players. They each earn 250 FedEx ATP Doubles Ranking points and a share of €6,030.

Cabal and Farah, who won five titles last season — including two Grand Slam championships — are still pursuing their first trophy of 2020. The Colombians depart Sardinia with 150 points each and a split of €5,000.

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