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WIMBLEDONJuly 9, 2016Pierre-Hugues HerbertNicolas MahutLondon, England HERBERT‑MAHUT/Benneteau‑Roger‑Vasselin THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Nicolas, you seemed particularly emotional at the end. What was sort of going through your head at match point? NICOLAS MAHUT: You know, lot of thing happen by this time. I said since I played tennis that Wimbledon is the greatest tournament. You know, when you win the match point in the final, you just realize that you're going to have your name written on the trophy and everywhere. Being the champions here in Wimbledon, it's a dream come through for me. Q. Your name is already written down in Wimbledon. How much more does it mean to be on the trophy rather than by Court18? NICOLAS MAHUT: I won the juniors, too. Q. Sorry. NICOLAS MAHUT: I think you were mentioning this one, I'm not sure (smiling). But you were talking about Court18? Q. Yes. NICOLAS MAHUT: Well, it's something special, having the name on the Court18. We talk a lot about this match already. I'm very proud of it. But now it's something different. Now I can come in the press conference as a Wimbledon champion. It's great (smiling). Q. Can you talk a little about a larger number of singles players playing doubles and does this mean that the era of double specialists is over? PIERRE‑HUGUES HERBERT: I think we're quite proud to be singles players that are playing doubles and competing on both events. For sure it's rare because right now on Grand Slams, the singles players are competing more in singles, putting more chances on their side, only in singles. But, yeah, it's quite rare to have, like, players that are playing singles and doubles. It's quite rare to have someone who makes second week, in men's tennis. We're seeing it in women's tennis right now with the Williams sisters. But in men's tennis, it's quite rare to have someone who is playing second week of singles, like Nico did this week, after winning the doubles tournament. So we're quite proud of it. I don't know if I answered the question. Q. Is it also because it is the Olympic year that a lot of singles players are playing doubles now? PIERRE‑HUGUES HERBERT: Actually, I don't think that that many players, for example, here in the tournament where you have to play doubles in five sets, not so many singles players are playing doubles in this Grand Slam. So I wouldn't say that many players are doing that. But for sure I think they're going to do it in other tournaments, try to play doubles, because it's an Olympic year. Q. Can I check what you need to do in order to represent France in the doubles at Rio, and how much of an ambition that is. PIERRE‑HUGUES HERBERT: I don't know if we can do more than we're doing right now. Q. Is there a criteria you have to meet? NICOLAS MAHUT: It's very complicating. Even now we don't know. We're just waiting for the answer. What is the date today? Q. July 9. NICOLAS MAHUT: They're going to say on the 15th. We didn't play enough Davis Cup ties. This is the reason why we're not selected yet. So just have to wait for the call coming on the 15th. We don't know more about it. Q. As an ambition? NICOLAS MAHUT: The ambition is to bring a medal for France, if possible, the gold one. Q. Can you talk about how you work so well together as a team. PIERRE‑HUGUES HERBERT: I think, first of all, we're two really good doubles players on each side of the court. But what makes us be a little bit more special is the fact that we're playing both an offensive game, going to the net, but a little bit with a different view. I think Nico is more the guy who is the statistic guy, the guy who is going to serve 80% of first serves, he's going to make 90% of his volleys, he's not going to miss. When he's going to have the things, he's not going to miss. He's going to be the guy who is going to be the solid player on his side. Me, on my side, I'm maybe playing the same game, going to the net, but having my moments in a game. Maybe having, I don't know, a good moment for three games. I'm not as constant as he is. I think it's quite difficult for the other teams to know how to play us. Do you like my answer? NICOLAS MAHUT: Yes. Q. There's lots of changing with doubles teams, pairs breaking up at the end of the year, middle of the season. It's not easy for fans to identify with a pair. Can you talk a little bit about sticking together like maybe the Woodies, the Bryans? NICOLAS MAHUT: This is more about doubles specialists. We are good friends. We say we play together, so we stay together. Even if sometimes we're going to lose some matches, we know we can win some, and we're going to lose some. But at the end of the year, going to be positive: going to win more than we're going to lose. Sometimes doubles players, once they lose one, two, three matches, then they want to split. Because we like each other, we like to spend time together, we like to spend time on the court and off the court, this is something we don't even think about changing. Q. Can you talk about playing such an important final against players that you know so well. NICOLAS MAHUT: Well, was not easy, 'cause like you say, I know Julien for more than 20 years. I played so many matches with him. The same for him. He knows what I like to do, I know what he likes to do. Even Edouard, we played many tournaments together. So something more tactically. Maybe sometimes you have to change what you really want to do to let them think. We said, Okay, we have to play the final of Wimbledon. Even if they're friends in front of us, we just want to win this tournament. I think we did it well. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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