ALBURY’S Sam Groth and Andrey Golubev, of Kazakhstan, last night reached the men’s doubles semi-finals at the French Open in Paris.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The unseeded pair easily accounted for ninth-seeded Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Sweden’s Robert Lindstedt 6-3 6-3 in their last-eight showdown.
In the semis, Groth and Golubev will face French 11th seeds Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin or Argentine pair Maximo Gonzalez and Juan Monaco.
The unfancied Australia-Kazakhstan combination set up their unlikely march to the semi-finals with a 7-6 6-4 second-round defeat of Spanish fourth seeds Fernando Verdasco and David Marrero.
In an earlier quarter-final upset, the top-seeded Bryan brothers of the US lost 6-4 6-2 to another Spanish pairing of Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez, seeded 12th.
This opened the draw dramatically for Groth and Golubev, with the French 11th seeds and Spanish 12th seeds the highest-ranked pairings left in the tournament.
It is the best performance from an Albury tennis player since Dianne Fromholtz teamed with Mark Edmondson to finish runners-up in the mixed doubles at Wimbledon in 1980.
Groth can expect his doubles ranking of 71 in the world to sky rocket off the back of his performance on clay.
The man with the world’s fastest ever serve had never previously qualified for the main draw in either singles or doubles at Roland Garros.
The performance also caps a stellar start to the year for Groth, already a winner on the challenger tour and having earned more than $100,000 before Paris.