US OPEN

September 10, 2022

Storm Sanders

John Peers

Press Conference

SANDERS-PEERS/Flipkens-Roger-Vasselin

4-6, 6-4, 10-7

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. Two tough sets, 10-7 in the match tiebreak. An hour, 26 minutes on the court. Could you give us your assessment of your level of play.

STORM SANDERS: For us, I think we played really well. Even at the start we had some opportunities on their service games early on, but couldn't quite get the break. I felt like we were playing well enough to even win the first set. Got broken on my serve. Super close, could have gone either way.

I'm super proud we backed ourselves and just played our game. We just kind of hung around, tried to enjoy the moment, too.

Honestly, it's a bit of a blur for me, even the super tiebreak. I know we came out kind of firing, got off to a good start in the super tiebreak. Yeah, just kind of hung on, just backed ourselves.

I trusted Johnny on his serves and volleys. Hopefully he can hit a good serve on match point. And he did. That was amazing.

THE MODERATOR: John?

JOHN PEERS: Yeah, no, there wasn't actually much in the first set. We had a few chances, but I thought they played really good, didn't really allow us to do much.

But then, yeah, I thought second set could have gone a little bit either way. We didn't really get any chances till that 5-4 game. It was the first time I felt we got sort of a chance, the window got opened. I felt we just kept momentum going, kept sticking to our guns.

Tiebreak can gone either way. We sort of just kept going, kept rolling the dice, backing what we had. It was good enough.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Storm, you said in the trophy presentation, you turned to John and said, I can't believe we're Grand Slam champions. First one for you. He has achieved one once before. Now that the emotions settled a bit, what did it feel like when you had that realization?

STORM SANDERS: To be honest, I still don't think it's really sunk in. Even before the match, I was just thinking it's another match, doesn't matter. Amazing opportunity and a great challenge to be playing on the biggest court in the world in a Grand Slam final. Obviously I lost my doubles semifinal yesterday in a close one. I had to kind of let that go and just really focus on today.

Yeah, when we won the match and it kind of all sunk in, having Sam there as well watching on, it was just super amazing. Kind of gave me a little bit of calmness knowing that she was there. I think she yelled out 'Believe in yourself' to me once, and that definitely helped.

Yeah, it still doesn't really feel real to be honest. This is the first time Johnny and I have played together. We played really well all week. We had some really tough opponents.

Yeah, our game styles match up really well. We also have a lot of fun out there, too.

Q. I think you said you guys were trying to arrange this for over a year. What took so long? Find the right schedules? John, I think you played obviously with a lot of mixed doubles partners. What makes it finally work?

JOHN PEERS: Yeah, no, Storm and I have been set with other partners when either one of us have tried to play with the other one. We sort of said a few months back, Look, if we don't do really well with a different partner, let's try to do the U.S. We sort of held off. I said, Let's hang off and see what happens.

Yeah, we were able to string it together here, which is great. Just timing worked out nicely. It was a lot of fun.

Q. Storm, it's been obviously a great season for you on the doubles side. What has that trajectory been like, how much it's added to your game, enjoyment of being on tour, getting deep regularly?

STORM SANDERS: Yeah, it's been a lot of fun. This year, yeah, I've won two WTA 500s with Ash and Katerina. Now a Grand Slam champion. It's been a lot of fun.

The biggest thing for me is just believing in my game. Making the doubles semifinal here with Caroline as well. Kind of not just accepting that making second or third round is good. For me now I want to go deep, win titles on the WTA Tour, be a consistent top-10 player in doubles.

For me it's kind of just believing in my game, yeah, and backing that. Also having fun. I need to enjoy it as well. I love the tour life, playing tennis, the challenge.

Yeah, I'm going to just keep trying to go after my goals as much as possible.

Q. You said just now there wasn't really a lot in the match. What do you tell yourselves going into a 10-point tiebreak in the third set?

STORM SANDERS: I don't know. I think the biggest thing is, like, just doing our game. It's a 10-point tiebreak, anything can happen. Every single point counts. That was the biggest thing.

We were down 8-6 in the super tiebreak the other day, came back and won it 10-8. It is kind of like you're never out of it. No matter, we were trying to put a lot of emphasis on every single point. Even if we got up a mini break there, we had to stay on it. Just backing our game and what we wanted to do. If they could come up with something, too good. Just kind of, I don't know, back our play. That was the main thing from my perspective.

JOHN PEERS: Yeah.

Q. Now that you've finally got to play together, is this combination locked in? Is the plan for 2023 to play together? Have you thought about that?

JOHN PEERS: We're definitely playing Aussie. Yeah, we haven't chatted past Aussie to be fair. I think we'll have a chat about something like that soon.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much.