Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul couldn’t contain their excitement after reaching the men’s doubles final in Rome. The pair saw off second seeds Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten, 7-6(5), 6-4. Both players were so overwhelmed that they removed their shirts and threw them at each other before the customary handshake at the net.
Doumbia and Reboul beat third seeds Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz of Germany in the quarter-final, 10-3 in a super tiebreak. The unseeded Doumbia and Reboul had made the semi-final in Bucharest and the Mexican Open final in March but have played mostly on the Challenger circuit this year.
Their delight at reaching a Masters 1000 final was understandable as they celebrated by going topless. Tennis TV tweeted the footage, captioning it:
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"Look what it means. Doumbia and Reboul are into a maiden Masters 1000 final after taking out 2nd seed pair Heliovaara and Patten 7-5, 6-4!"
Neither the 34-year-old Doumbia nor the 29-year-old Reboul is ranked inside the top 1500 singles players. Doumbia, though, is the 47th-ranked doubles player, while Fabien Reboul is No. 38.
Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul have been doubles partners since 2022
Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul became a pairing in 2022, when the two Frenchmen received a wildcard invite to the 2022 Rolex Paris Masters. They wasted no time in making their mark, reaching their first ATP final at the Cordoba Open in February 2023, losing 6-4, 6-4 to the Argentinian pairing of Maximo Gonzales and Andres Molteni.
In September that year, they captured their first ATP title at the Chengdu Open - and in October, they upset second seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski en route the Shanghai Masters semi-final. They won three more ATP titles in 2024 - Open Sud de France, Tiriac Open and Chengdu, where they succeesfully defended their title.
When Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul first got together, Doumbia was adamant that their partnership could yield results, telling ladepeche.fr:
"This year we've played a lot of big teams, and we're starting to get some bearings. We can beat the best."
Coming back to the Italian Open, the Frenchmen will have their work cut out to capture their first Masters 1000 title, as they play top seeds, Mate Pavic and Marcelo Arevalo, in the final. Pavic and Arevalo won in Miami and Indian Wells this year and were finalists in Madrid and Monte Carlo.
