Doubles Take: Bryan bros continue as Groth's run ends

The women's final is all set, while the men are almost there. Here's your daily dose of Doubles Take.

One of the most compelling storylines at the Australian Open has come to an end as Sam Groth and Lleyton Hewitt fell in the doubles quarterfinals to Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah.

Groth will join Hewitt in retirement now, but as the Davis Cup captain showed, there’s no such thing as goodbye, especially if a friend comes calling.

On the women’s side, it’ll be Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic against Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the final as both teams won their semifinal matches in straight sets. Makarova and Vesnina are going for the career Grand Slam as they make a return trip to the title round in Melbourne.

Babos has had an excellent tournament as she and Rohan Bopanna are now in the semifinals of the mixed doubles after beating the defending champs, Cabal and Abigail Spears, in straight sets.

Here’s a look at the men’s semifinal matches on Thursday, plus one of the mixed quarterfinals.

(6) Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan vs. (11) Juan Sebastian Cabal/Robert Farah:

The Bryans were ruthless in the quarterfinals, earning their first straight-sets win of the tournament. The six-time champions have never lost a semifinal match here, having reached the final on three other occasions. On the other side of the net, Cabal and Farah are playing only their second Slam semifinal together. The Americans are within striking distance of breaking their major drought and should be able to overcome this hurdle.

(6) Andrea Hlavackova/Edouard Roger-Vasselin vs. (3) Ekaterina Makarova/Bruno Soares:

This is the only mixed doubles quarterfinal to feature two seeded teams, and it was an exciting one. Makarova and Soares’ Slam-winning success together (2012 US Open champions) may have been the intangible that makes the difference in the 13-11 deciding tiebreak.

Soares knows good things happen when he partners with one of the world's second-ranked women's doubles team.

That's right: He won the mixed title with Makarova's partner Vesnina only two years ago.

(7) Oliver Marach/Mate Pavic vs. Ben Mclachlan/Jan-Lennard Struff:

Losing? That’s so 2017. Marach and Pavic’s unbeaten-in-2018 streak has been impressive. It’s like they took the lessons of losing three grass-court finals in a row last year to heart and know how to push through at the final stages of a tournament. Mclachlan and Struff did beat two Top-10 seeds on their way to this stage, but Marach and Pavic pulled off the win, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4).

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