The French duo of Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut continued their unbeaten run in Masters tournaments this year with a 4-6, 6-0, 10-6, win over top seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares.
In a match of two halves, the French team dropped the opening set before producing a second set whitewash by strolling to 6-0, after 25 minutes of play as their opponents struggled with their service. The dominance continued into the final set tiebreaker as Herbert and Mahut managed to grab back-to-back breaks to race to a 4-0 lead. The two early breaks were enough to secure the title as they closed out the proceedings with their first championship point.
The triumph over the top seeds gives the 2015 US Open doubles champions their third consecutive Masters 1000 title this year, after Miami and Indian Wells. They are only the second doubles team in history to win the first three Masters tournaments of a season after the Bryan Brothers back in 2014.
Despite their dominance on the tour this year, both Mahut and Herbert are determined to keep their focus on the singles in 2016. Mahut is currently ranked 48th in the world and Herbert is 95th. Both men have attributed their success to what they have learned from singles competition.
“I don’t think this would be a good decision because if we are efficient playing doubles, it is because we are good singles players,” Herbert said when asked about focusing on doubles.
“When you play against Andy Murray, you see that in doubles he would have the answer to every shot. Sometimes doubles specialists have major weaknesses in their games. So for us it is important to play singles at the same time. It’s our first goal, to be efficient in the singles,” he later added.
Prior to their Monte-Carlo final, world No.12 doubles player Soares described the two as having ‘no weaknesses’. Despite the high praise, Mahut is still targeting further improvement with his French partner on the court.
“What we want to do is keep improving and become the best so we know what part of our games we can improve”, he said.
“That’s what we’ve been doing. What worked well during the past month and a half is that our performances have been more consistent. We have improved in this regard”.
The triumph at the Monte-Carlo is just the fifth title won by the French pairing, third this year. Last year Mahut and Herbert won the Aegon Championships followed by the US Open, their biggest title to date.
Doubles Final Highlights: ATP Monte-Carlo
