French pair Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert will turn their focus to winning an Olympic gold medal in Tokyo after claiming the French Open doubles titles for the second time.
Mahut and Herbert — who have won all four Grand Slam tournaments together — defeated Alexander Bublik and Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 4-6, 7-6 (1), 6-4 in Saturday's final at Roland Garros. It was their fifth Grand Slam title together.
Mahut fell on his back and put his head in his hands after they became the first all-French team to win twice at the clay-court major since World War II. Mahut and Herbert won their first title in Paris in 2018.
“It’s my dream as a kid to win Roland Garros. To be able to do it a second time in front of this crowd, I think it’s really, maybe the best emotions that I have had," Herbert said.
A very emotional Mahut held back tears and said winning the gold medal in doubles at the Olympics could well be the final big goal of their career.
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“We are working very hard to achieve this," he said. “This is what motivates us. I'm thinking about it when I find it difficult to go out training."
The French pair saved three match points on Thursday to defeat second-seeded Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah.
Bublik and Golubev were bidding to win their first tour-level title and to become the first Kazakh men to win a Grand Slam title in any discipline. The only Kazakh player with a major title is Yaroslava Shvedova, who won the women’s doubles titles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2010.
The Kazakh pair served for the match at 5-4 in the second set but Bublik was broken after hitting a double fault. Mahut and Herbert then dictated play in the tiebreaker. They saved two break points in the fourth game of the decider and broke for a 4-3 lead.
The French fans rendered an a cappella version of the national anthem of France to celebrate the duo's impressive win.
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