Nicolas Mahut captured his first Grand Slam title and by teaming up with Pierre-Hugues Herbert to do it, an all-French duo won the U.S. Open men’s doubles tournament for the first time in history. Mahut and Herbert defeated Jamie Murray and John Peers 6-4, 6-4 in the final on Sunday afternoon.
The 12th seeds also reached the title match at the Australian Open earlier this year but lost to Fabio Fognini and Simone Bolelli.
“(I’m) just really happy about winning a slam,” Mahut assured. “That was our goal (this season), to win a slam. We will try to win another one. I’m just happy about what happened today.”
“It feels incredible,” Herbert added. “[Mahut] came to see me just last year and for a long time he tells me, ‘you’re a good doubles player.’ Last year he believed in me and he said, ‘let’s go do a year.’ (I’m) so grateful to be here. I think we don’t understand right now what is happening.”
Saturday’s schedule also featured plenty of players with future Grand Slam aspirations. The National Collegiate Invitation concluded with the men’s and women’s finals and UCLA swept the two titles.
Mackenzie McDonald defeated Gonzales Austin of Vanderbilt 6-2, 7-5 and Robin Anderson got the best of Chanelle Van Nguyen 6-4, 6-4. The Bruins were actually guaranteed the women’s title after Friday’s semifinals because Van Nguyen also attends UCLA.
Elsewhere on the grounds of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Saturday, wheelchair participants had their time to shine. Great Britain’s Andrew Lapthorne warmed up for his quad doubles final with none other than Novak Djokovic, who will contest Sunday’s singles championship against Roger Federer. The practice session must have worked, because Lapthorne and Dylan Alcott of Australia were leading the American team of Nicholas Taylor and David Wagner 6-4, 1-2 when it was postponed by rain.
In the wheelchair men’s singles semifinals, Frenchman Stephane Houdet beat compatriot Nicolas Peifer 7-6(5), 6-2. Both Houdet and Peifer lost in the semifinals last year–Houdet to Gustavo Fernandez and Peifer in a close one against eventual winner Shingo Kunieda.
Houdet will face Kunieda–a five-time champion of this event–for the title on Sunday.
ALLEZ!!