Toulouse. The Doumbia-Reboul pair gets the year off to a good start
For their second tournament of the season, Fabien Reboul and Sadio Doumbia won the Challenger tournament in Forli. Seeded N.2, they lined up four games without losing a set.
“Last year, we had to wait until April to win our first Challenger of the season. This time, it is therefore reassuring to have been able to win another title in this category so quickly, from our second round of the year. To attack 2022, Sadio Doumbia (122nd in the world in doubles) and Fabien Reboul (121st), members of Stade Toulousain, have checked Italy and more precisely the city of Forlì in Emilia-Romagna. The week of January 3, the Toulouse pair had stopped in the semi-finals. But the day before yesterday, on the same site, for another tournament in the Challenger category, she went all the way at the end of a flawless run by not dropping any set in four matches, winning her crowned 18th in the process (the 9th in this 2nd division of the professional circuit).
“We were able to make a few small changes”
In the final, the Stadistes, seeded N.2, had reason to fear the pair Nicolas Mejia (Colombia, 427th)-Alexander Ritschard (United States, 631st), scorer in the quarter of the N.1 of the table. Nevertheless, the case was quickly folded with the score of 6-2, 6-3. “The previous week, in the last four, we had lost 10-8 in the super tie-break as a Decisive round. points than our opponents. Going into this second week, we were able to make a few small changes and it paid off by dropping only twenty-five games in four rounds, “says Fabien. “I think it’s the first time that we’ve won a competition together so easily in quotation marks. Moreover, during this defeat in the half a few days earlier, we had faced this American player. So we knew more or less what to expect. As for his partner, we had already met him. But we were able to stay solid until the end”, specifies for his part Sadio.
Crowned French champions by Pro A teams (i.e. the national elite) in December with their “buddies” from Stade Toulousain (a first for the “red and black” men’s pennant team), the two friends admit that this collective title allowed them to open the 2022 chapter on a good dynamic. “Looking back, I think it was good for us to take a few weeks off from the routine of the international circuit and to come together for a common goal. Personally, I was able to play singles matches. We was also able to train well. And there, from January, we are already well launched. It bodes well, “said Fabien.
“We know that we have the level to play tournaments on the ATP circuit”
This week, the Stadistes further extend the Italian parenthesis, “always in the same place”, with an entry into the running on Wednesday. But the ATP circuit is more and more present in their minds. “We hope to succeed in passing this famous milestone in order to be able to compete more regularly in events at the higher level. We know that we have the level to play these ATP tournaments”, explains Sadio. “During the week of January 31 to February 6, we are registered for the ATP tournaments in Pune in India, Cordoba in Argentina and Montpellier”, announces Fabien.
Note that in the ranking, Sadio and Fabien were to appear respectively this Monday in 111th and 110th places in the world.