ROLEX SHANGHAI MASTERS

October 13, 2024

Wesley Koolhof

Nikola Mektic

Mixed Zone

KOOLHOF-MEKTIC/Gonzalez-Molteni

6-4, 6-4

Q. Congratulations. A second ATP Masters 1000 title for the year, you must be very pleased with your week.

NIKOLA MEKTIC: Yeah, amazing, started so great, winning the first Masters of the year, and we're happy, so happy we picked it up now toward the end of the year. Well, yeah, I mean, it's just, not only this, like Wes said, we're also fighting for a few last spots in the Masters, so this week is definitely huge for us.

Q. You've really had to sort of fight for your wins this week as well, that must make it a little bit more special. What clicks for you, do you think, as a partnership?

WESLEY KOOLHOF: Well, we know each other already, obviously we played in 2020 before, and, yeah, we had a really good test this week. I think we won three match tiebreaks here and match points, saved like two, three, four, I don't even know how many match points there are in the second round. We had a very tough battle two days ago in the semis, we kept on going.

We started the year unbelievable, winning Rotterdam, winning Indian Wells. Then we had a bit of a bad middle part of the season, with the clay and the grass, but we knew what we were playing for, to reach Turin in the end. There was only one or two spots up for grabs, and with these thousand points we've done ourselves a great job towards that.

I think just, yeah, it clicks. I think, on the court, off the court, we have the same idea of practicing, how to approach the matches. And, yeah, we are very versatile players, we can play serve and volley, we can stay back, so there's always a plan B, or sometimes even plan C, when plan A and plan B aren't working.

So, yeah, it worked for us, some narrow escapes, but very happy with the way we performed the whole week and especially today.

Q. Any thoughts on reconsidering retirement at the end of the year?

WESLEY KOOLHOF: No, not yet (laughing). Ask me again in a few weeks.

NIKOLA MEKTIC: First time he used the word "yet."

WESLEY KOOLHOF: (Laughing) No, four more to go, hopefully four more to go. Obviously Basil is next, and then Paris, and then hopefully Turin, and then the Davis Cup finals in Malaga against Spain in the quarters, and then, you know, that's it for me. No, happy to, hopefully we can finish strong, and we can, yeah, keep this trend going.