Paris: Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hughes Herbert became the third home duo to win the French Open men’s doubles when they defeated second seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic 6-2, 7-6(7-4) Saturday.
French fans were in full voice on Court Philippe Chatrier as Mahut and Herbert comfortably won the opening set. The second set was closer as Austrian Marach and Croatian Pavic broke back, having dropped serve in the seventh game, and forced the set into a tie-breaker.
Mahut and Herbert held their nerve though and took the tie-break when Herbert punched away a volley to spark wild celebrations from the pair who had previously won the 2015 US Open and 2016 Wimbledon.
The only other all-French pairs to win the men’s doubles at Roland Garros were Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in 2014 and Henri Leconte and Yannick Noah in 1984.
Maiden Grand Slam title
Paris: Katerina Siniakova and Barbora Krejcikova claimed their maiden Grand Slam title when they beat the unseeded Japanese pair of Eri Hozumi and Makoto Ninomiya 6-3, 6-3 in the French Open women’s doubles final here Sunday. The sixth-seeded Czech needed just over an hour to down the first all-Japanese pair to reach a major final. It was a long-overdue reward for Siniakova and Krejcikova, who captured the junior doubles title here in 2013. They are the first all-Czech duo to capture the Roland Garros women’s doubles title since Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka in 2011.
