Robert Farah

Robert Charbel Farah Maksoud (; born 20 January 1987) is a Colombian former professional tennis player. A world No. 1 in doubles, he also reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 163 in June 2011.

Farah is a two-time Grand Slam Champion, having won both the 2019 Wimbledon Championships (the first Hispanic duo to accomplish the feat) alongside compatriot Juan Sebastián Cabal when Robert was 3 months old.

Tennis has been part of his family for generations. Farah is the son of retired tennis player Patrick Farah, who introduced Robert to tennis at the age of 3. Patrick's father was a 1950s tennis champion, and Robert's great-aunt Nena Farah was a tennis champion in the 1930s. His sister, Romy Farah, is a former professional tennis player.

College career Farah played college tennis at the University of Southern California from 2006 to 2010 where he won two NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championships as a USC Trojan. He finished his Senior season (2010) as the No. 1 ranked NCAA D1 player in the US in singles, while additionally ranked 2nd in doubles. He won the 2008 NCAA Men's Doubles National Championship, partnering Kaes Van't Hof. He occasionally played doubles at USC with future ATP pro Steve Johnson.

Professional career 2011 Farah's consistent doubles partnership with fellow countryman Juan Sebastián Cabal began at Wimbledon 2011, when they defeated the pair consisting of Pakistani Aisam Qureshi (8 in doubles) and Indian Rohan Bopanna (9 in the world), in a tight three set match that went to 21–19 in the final set, before losing in second round against American Michael Russell and Kazakhstani Mikhail Kukushkin in straight sets.

2013 In the 2013 Australian Open, Farah and Cabal made their first appearance in the quarterfinals.

2016 In 2016, Farah reached his first grand slam final, in the mixed doubles at Wimbledon partnering Anna-Lena Grönefeld. They lost in straight sets to Henri Kontinen of Finland and Heather Watson of the UK.

2017 In 2017, Farah and Cabal reached their first men's doubles grand slam semifinal at the French Open. In the same tournament he reached the final of the mixed doubles partnering Gronefeld where they lost to Rohan Bopanna and Gabriela Dabrowski in 3 sets.

2019: Two Grand Slam and Second Masters titles, World No. 1 Farah and countryman Cabal won their first ever Grand Slam men's doubles title at Wimbledon in 2019, defeating Frenchmen Nicolas Mahut and Édouard Roger-Vasselin in a thrilling 5 set match that required 4 tie-break sets; this victory helped Farah and Cabal to both ascend to world No. 1 in the week following the conclusion of the Championships.

2022-23: Two Masters finals, Retirement Farah made his last ATP tour-level professional appearance at the 2023 US Open (tennis) with Cabal where they lost in the second round.

Post retirement In July 2026, Robert Farah joined the cooking reality show MasterChef Celebrity Colombia as a contestant.

Personal life Farah has been in a relationship with former Spanish professional golfer Belén Mozo since 2007, and they got married on 5 December 2020. Together, they are parents to two children.

In June 2026, Farah endorsed presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella and urged people to vote for him in Colombia's 2026 presidential election.

Controversies

In July 2018, Farah was given a suspended three months ban and fined £3,800 for promoting a gambling website on his Twitter account. Farah would only serve the suspension if there were further breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program.

In October 2019, Farah was tested positive for the anabolic steroid Boldenone. He was provisionally suspended from official tournaments from 14 January 2020 and did not compete at the 2020 Australian Open. Farah argued that he had ingested Boldenone from contaminated Colombian meat and the ITF chose not to ban him, holding that he "bears no fault or negligence for the violation".

Performance timelines

Doubles Current through the 2023 US Open.

Mixed doubles

Major finals Grand Slam finals Doubles: 3 (2 titles, 1 runner-up)

Mixed doubles: 2 (2 runners-up) ResultDateTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss 2016 Wimbledon Grass Anna-Lena Grönefeld Heather Watson Henri Kontinen 6–7(5–7), 4–6Loss 2017 French Open Clay Anna-Lena Grönefeld Gabriela Dabrowski Rohan Bopanna 6–2, 2–6, [10–12]

Masters 1000 finals

Doubles: 7 (2 titles, 5 runner-ups)

ATP career finals

Doubles: 42 (19 titles, 23 runner-ups) LegendGrand Slam tournaments (2–1)ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (2–5)ATP World Tour 500 Series (6–4)ATP World Tour 250 Series (9–13)Finals by surfaceHard (5–9)Clay (12–14)Grass (2–0)Finals by settingOutdoor (16–22)Indoor (3–1)

ATP Challenger & ITF Futures

Singles: 5 (3–2) LegendATP Challenger Tour (1–2)ITF Futures (2–0)