The Swiss Alps saw some intense tennis on Thursday. Portugal’s Francisco Cabral and his Austrian partner Lucas Miedler battled their way into the doubles semifinals at the Gstaad tournament. They faced a strong Dutch team, Matwe Middelkoop and Jean-Julien Rojer.
Cabral and Miedler won in two tight sets. Both sets went to tie-breaks, showing just how close the match was. The final score was 7-6 (10-8) and 7-6 (7-2). The whole contest lasted one hour and forty-one minutes.
Cabral currently ranks 44th in the world for doubles. Miedler is right behind him at 45th. Their opponents were ranked lower. Middelkoop sits at 118th, and Rojer at 87th. Interestingly, Cabral has even played alongside Rojer earlier this season.
As the top-seeded team in the tournament, Cabral and Miedler are looking strong. They will now play either Germany’s Constantin Frantzen and the Netherlands’ Robin Haase, who are the fourth seeds, or the Swiss pair Jakub Paul and Dominic Stricker. Frantzen ranks 59th, Haase 81st. Paul is 85th, and Stricker 232nd.
This isn’t the first time this duo has reached this stage. This Gstaad semifinal marks their fourth together on the ATP tour this season. They previously made it to the semifinals in Geneva, Halle, and Stuttgart. However, they couldn’t get past that round in those tournaments. They’ll be hoping this time is different and they can push for the final.