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ROLAND GARROSJune 8, 2017Rohan BopannaGabriela DabrowskiParis, France BOPANNA-DABROWSKI/GROENEFELD-FARAH THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Congrats. How does it feel to win your first Grand Slam? GABRIELA DABROWSKI: Very special. I mean, it's something that you always dream about as a kid. It's kind of funny, because you never know where the journey is going to take you, singles, doubles, now mixed doubles. I couldn't be more happy. Yeah, it feels amazing. ROHAN BOPANNA: Truly special. You know, you always, as an athlete, when you start playing tennis, you want to win a Grand Slam. Of course like Gaby said, you start with singles, and I have been playing doubles now for a long time. It's my first final in the mixed. I think we didn't start off great today, but we kept pushing, kept working hard together, and, you know, we finally got through. I mean, I think that's what makes a difference is when you play with partners regularly at slams, you know, you get to understand each other. I think that helped us also today coming through those close matches. You know, you end up trusting your partner. You know what the strength of your partner is, as well. And I think it's really, really special, especially for India. I think mixed doubles was the first slam 20 years ago, you know, when Mahesh won it. I'm really happy to be part of those athletes who have won slams after that. For me, it was always a personal goal to, you know, win a slam. And it's still sinking in, to be honest. Q. Could you tell us what was going on in your head when you're down two match points? What did you tell each other? ROHAN BOPANNA: We were down? Q. 9-7. ROHAN BOPANNA: I'm just joking. (Laughter.) You know, at that point in time, you just play what you have done in practice and in matches. You don't really try to do anything different. You just go out there. You don't think that it's a match point. You just go play aggressive. And, you know, I think Gaby came out with a great return on, I think, 9-8 when Robert served. She trusts her instinct and hit a great backhand. I think that's what made these matches more special. Q. Congratulations, guys. How did you hook up in the first place, so to speak? Seemed like from the beginning you were a good team together. A lot of times in mixed doubles, the men will insist on playing the ad side. Not the case with you guys. Wondering how you decided that. GABRIELA DABROWSKI: Well, I think it was US Open I put my name on the looking list, and Rohan texted me. I think it was the morning of sign-in. Luckily for where my ranking was at the time, and him being 17, of course I said yes immediately (smiling). Yeah, we had a good run there. Then we played in Australia. In terms of sides, I think we just kept our own sides that we have been playing on and what we are used to with our regular partners. So I don't think there was any reason to change it. ROHAN BOPANNA: I think with the format, also, when it goes to deuce point, the girl serves to the girl and guy serves to the guy. It's already a tough situation with the super-tiebreak, and also changing the side makes it much tougher. I think we just keep our sides, and, you know, it worked out well. We lost a close match to Robert Farah and Groenefeld at the US Open, had match points in quarters in Australia and lost. Today we had match points down and came through. That's how it is. We just have to, you know, play our game and hope for the best. Q. The stuff that went on just before Gaby served, is that anything you haven't seen before? All the stuff, flashy things in the crowd? A lot of things were happening. How did you keep your focus during that extremely long break before your serve? GABRIELA DABROWSKI: Well, I didn't, because my serve didn't go where I wanted it to. I wanted to go T, and I shanked it in the middle of the net wide. I think the ball ricocheted off of his racquet into his eye. Obviously that hurts and, for us, vision is everything. You know, so I think that was okay. The badge, I don't know, I didn't really see. ROHAN BOPANNA: I think the eye drops worked so well that even the badge was distracting. So that's what it was. Q. Fairly one-sided first set and you turned it around in the second set and you were dominating all of a sudden. Did you change anything specific from the first set to the second set? Did you play your natural game and everything started falling into place? ROHAN BOPANNA: I think we relaxed a little more in the second set, and we started playing our game. I think we were trying to do too much, you know, as a team. Just because it was a final, we were trying to go for too much maybe on the returns or even on the serve, for me. So after that first set, you know, we just stuck to what we do best. We started pushing each other, motivating each other. I think that's what made the difference. I think the main thing was we just relaxed a little bit more. Especially for us playing our first final together and Robert and Anna were in the a final before. And, of course, getting used to the surroundings, it makes a big difference. And I think once nerves calmed down, we played better tennis. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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