CITI OPEN

August 8, 2021

Raven Klaasen

Ben McLachlan

Press Conference

KLAASEN-McLACHLAN/Skupski-Venus

7-6, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How are you guys feeling after the win?

BEN McLACHLAN: Obviously really good. Very pumped to get through that match. Straight sets, especially, because we were down a break in the first set. Second set we faced a lot of breakpoints, as well, and came through in the clutch. Very happy.

Q. Congratulations on your first title this season. Just talk me through the match and how it feels to win in Washington.

RAVEN KLAASEN: Yeah, I mean, fantastic. Ben and I have had a long season. We've had couple of big wins. To finally get over the hump, we have lost a couple of semis, it's nice to finish things off. Especially in Washington kind of where we were defending. I had won the title in 2019. It was nice to come out here and do it again.

He carried me the first set, for sure. I thought we had a good start and unfortunately went down a break. Second set we were hanging on for dear life. We probably were the worse team in the second set, but being together for more than a year now, the experience helps and hopefully we can build on that.

Q. How did you feel in the first set? You were 5-3 down and you managed to sort of turn it around. How did you sort of stay calm and not get too nervous or feel the pressure too much just to set the set back in your favor?

RAVEN KLAASEN: Well, I mean, with this scoring system, you know that things can change in a heartbeat. We have been on the receiving end of some tough losses from that position, and we knew that if we kind of hang tough mentally, to close out the set is quite difficult, I think.

We made a couple of key returns at the right moment to keep us alive. That's the mental challenge, trying to stay alive mentally when things aren't going your way. Fortunately today it worked out for us. Sometimes it doesn't, but with experience, you learn that you've got to hang in there till the end of the set. Very happy things went our way today.