Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah announced on Wednesday that they have set a date for the end of their respective careers in professional tennis. The Colombian two-time Grand Slam champions will play their last three events at the US Open, the Davis Cup series against Ukraine, and an ATP Challenger Tour event in Bogota that starts 25 September.
“This is not a knee-jerk reaction or something we decided from one day to the next. ‘Sebas’ and I have decided to complete a cycle in tennis,” Farah explained in a press conference in Bogota on Wednesday. “Obviously it’s a decision that brings a lot of emotions with it. It’s not easy, but now we want to prioritise new things in our lives.”
Cabal added, “We feel like we’re doing the right thing. It’s a difficult moment. We’ve been playing this sport for 30 years, dreaming of life at the top. It’s hard to say goodbye, but everything comes to an end, and this is a good point, we feel it is a good moment. It’s not because of the results. It’s because of the time for each of us.”
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The end point started to materialise at the end of 2022. Family had already started to take up more space in both of their lives, and the wear and tear of so many years competing did nothing to make up for the time away from home. Nor did the injuries, such as the shoulder issue Farah picked up at the 2022 US Open, forcing him to have injections to play throughout 2023.
“The last two years we didn’t have a single week where we were both physically healthy,” Cabal said. “And although sport is in our blood, the wear and tear is a product of a long career. We started to analyse it and we said, ‘2023 will be the last year’. Now we just have to thank the world of tennis, life, God. We’ve had many experiences. We are very happy and at peace because we gave our all.”
Cabal, 37, and Farah, 36, picked up their first main-draw win as a pair on the ATP Tour at Wimbledon 2011. From there, they built a career that is unparalleled in Colombian and South American tennis. They won 19 tour-level titles, enjoying success in every possible category on the tour.
After lifting trophies at ATP 250 and ATP 500 events, ‘Colombian Power’ claimed their first ATP Masters 1000 by winning Rome in 2018. A year later, they successfully defended their title at the Foro Itálico, just before joining a far more exclusive club.
At Wimbledon in 2019, Cabal and Farah became the first Hispanic team to win the trophy in the Open Era. “Wimbledon was the most amazing thing we won in our careers,” Cabal said.
Juan Sebastian Cabal (left) and Robert Farah win Wimbledon in 2019. Credit: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
The Wimbledon final five-set win against Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin took them to No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings for the first time. Months later, they won their second Grand Slam title at the US Open, beating Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos in the final.
“We were so fortunate to win two Grand Slam titles. It was the product of growing into the process, challenging ourselves every day to get better, of so much discipline,” Farah said.
That motivation helped them end 2019 as the No. 1 pair in the world, and to play in three Nitto ATP Finals, the season-end event that includes only the best eight teams of the year. They were twice semi-finalists (2018, 2019) at the Nitto ATP Finals.
Part of their legacy also includes the consistency of playing together. In a discipline that normally comes with so many changes of partner, Cabal and Farah considered themselves an inseparable team. On Wednesday, still side-by-side, they decided to announce their full stop on their respective careers in a sport that has given them everything.
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