The top doubles title at Winston-Salem slipped away from Francisco Cabral today. The Portuguese tennis player, pairing with Austria’s Lucas Miedler, faced defeat in the final held in the United States. They were bested by the Brazilian duo of Rafael Matos and Marcelo Melo.
Cabral, currently ranked 29th in the world for doubles, and Miedler, sitting just above him at 28th, put up a tough fight. Their opponents included Matos, ranked 51st, who once played alongside Cabral. Melo, a former world No. 1 in doubles, is now ranked 62nd. The match ended with a score of 6-4, 4-6, and a deciding 8-10 in the super tie-break. The contest lasted one hour and 34 minutes.
This loss means Cabral, who hails from Porto, has now reached an ATP final and not claimed the trophy four times. All of his previous final defeats happened in 2023. He lost in Chengdu and Bastad that year, both times while playing with Rafael Matos. Later, he also came up short in the Banja Luka final, partnering with Kazakh player Aleksandr Nedovyesov.
A win today would have given Cabral his fourth career ATP tour title. He had already secured one earlier in 2025 with Miedler at Gstaad. Interestingly, Cabral had won the Gstaad tournament before. That victory came in 2022, when he teamed up with Bosnian Tomislav Brkic. The same year, 2022, also saw him celebrate a win at the Estoril Open with his fellow countryman Nuno Borges.