Pierre Hugues Herbert

[Damian]

Herbert/Mahut Extend Rotterdam Winning Streak

Spoiler:

Frenchmen aiming to lift second Rotterdam title as a team

Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut moved one step away from a second ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament trophy as a team on Saturday, recovering from a set down to beat Raven Klaasen and Oliver Marach 6-7(6), 7-6(6), 10-7.

The 2018 champions recorded their sixth consecutive win at the opening ATP 500 event of the year in one hour and 58 minutes, saving all three break points they faced en route to victory. Herbert and Mahut won six straight points from 2/5 down in the Match Tie-break and converted their first match point to reach their maiden final of the 2020 ATP Tour season.

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The second seeds are through to their 22nd tour-level final as a team. Herbert and Mahut have lifted 15 trophies from 21 championship matches and won each of their three finals last year.

Herbert and Mahut will face Henri Kontinen and Jan-Lennard Struff for the trophy. Making their second appearance as a team this year, the Australian Open quarter-finalists edged Rohan Bopanna and Denis Shapovalov 5-7, 6-2, 10-8 in 73 minutes.

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At the New York Open, Dominic Inglot and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi defeated Nicholas Monroe and Jack Sock 4-6, 7-6(3), 10-3 to reach their second final in as many weeks. The British-Pakistani pairing, which finished as runner-up at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier, won 79 per cent of first-serve points (38/48) throughout the one-hour, 31-minute encounter.

Inglot and Qureshi will meet Steve Johnson and Reilly Opelka, who wrapped up the night session with a 7-6(3), 6-4 win over Marcelo Arevalo and Jonny O’Mara. Johnson is aiming for his second tour-level doubles title and Opelka is looking for his first.

The Argentina Open in Buenos Aires saw top seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos break serve on four occasions to beat Marcelo Demoliner and Matwe Middelkoop 6-2, 7-5 and earn their spot in the final. Three-time champion Zeballos is aiming to lift the trophy in the Argentine capital for the third straight year, while two-time winner Granollers is attempting to win his first title at the ATP 250 event since 2014.

Awaiting them in the championship match are Guillermo Duran and Juan Ignacio Londero, who upset third seeds Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen 7-6(4), 6-4. Duran seeks his fifth ATP Tour doubles title and his first since Kitzbühel 2017 (w/Cuevas), while Londero is competing in his first tour-level doubles final.

More Stories Like This In: Rotterdam 2020 Doubles Match Report Pierre-Hugues Herbert Nicolas Mahut

https://www.atptour.com/en/news/rotterd ... s-saturday

[Kamileki]

[Barty]

Herbert/Mahut Capture Second Rotterdam Crown

Spoiler:

French pairing owns 9-1 record in Rotterdam

Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut extended their impressive record at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament on Sunday, beating Henri Kontinen and Jan-Lennard Struff 7-6(5), 4-6, 10-7 to lift their second trophy in three team appearances in Rotterdam.

The Frenchmen recorded their seventh straight victory at the ATP 500 event in one hour and 34 minutes, saving five of seven break points en route to victory. Herbert and Mahut also claimed the title on their last visit to the Rotterdam Ahoy in 2018. The second seeds have now won 16 titles from 22 finals as a partnership.

“It is a tournament I love,” said Mahut. “The first time I came here, I saw the Centre Court [and] it is amazing. One of the greatest on the Tour, definitely. I have a special feeling when I play in Holland… There is something special here.”


Mahut has now clinched 29 tour-level doubles crowns, while Herbert adds an 18th title to his collection. Mahut owns an 18-3 record and four trophies in Rotterdam, having also triumphed at the opening ATP 500 event of the year in 2014 (w/Llodra) and 2016 (w/Pospisil). This is the French pair’s first trophy since lifting the Nitto ATP Finals title for the first time last November.

“In the tough times, you have to stick together as a team and I think we could do that the whole weekend because our semi-final was also a tough one,” said Herbert. “We were still believing in ourselves and we found the solution to win maybe the one or two points that you need to make a difference in a match like this.”

Australian Open quarter-finalists Kontinen and Struff were attempting to capture their first team trophy in just their second appearance together. Kontinen was also bidding to win his second straight trophy in Rotterdam after his title run alongside Jeremy Chardy last year.

Herbert and Mahut receive 500 FedEx ATP Doubles Ranking points and split €130,680 in prize money. Kontinen and Struff gain 300 points and share €63,980.

“I have to say we were a little bit lucky to win this one,” said Mahut. “It is a strong team [we played]. I am pretty sure they will be in London at the end of the season. Definitely one of the top eight teams.”

https://www.atptour.com/en/news/herbert ... bles-final

[arti]

[arti]

Evans will face Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the second round. The Frenchman beat Delray Beach runner-up Yoshihito Nishioka 7-5, 6-2 in 78 minutes. Herbert dropped only four points behind his first serve (28/32) to level his ATP Head2Head series against the 24-year-old at 1-1.

https://www.atptour.com/en/news/paire-f ... 20-tuesday

[Kamileki]

[Del Fed]

Félicitations! Herbert & Fiancée Expecting First Child]

Spoiler:

Frenchman shared the happy news on Sunday
Pierre-Hugues Herbert had plenty of reason to celebrate last weekend. Not only did he ring in the birthday of his fiancée, Julia Lang, but he announced that the couple are expecting their first child.
Herbert revealed the news on Sunday in an Instagram post. Fellow players on Tour quickly jumped in the comments section to congratulate them, including Felix Auger-Aliassime, John Isner, Jan-Lennard Struff and Andreas Seppi. Herbert announced his engagement to Lang after clinching last year’s Nitto ATP Finals doubles title with Nicolas Mahut (d. Klaasen/Venus).
The Frenchmen continued their successful on-court partnership this year by taking title in Rotterdam (d. Kontinen/Struff). Herbert also posted a 7-5 record this season in singles, including tour-level quarter-finals in Doha and Montpellier.

https://www.atptour.com/en/news/herbert ... pril-2020-

[Damian]

Pierre-Hugues Herbert: Narrowing His Vision

Spoiler:

With exclusive insight, the Frenchman opens up to life inside the tramlines

Editor's Note: This story was first published on 29 May.

It was in Harlingen, Texas that the conversation took place, after bearing witness to an awkward, tense exchange between father and son, united in doing their best and what they thought was right, but never quite spelling out their real concerns – perhaps out of fear, but certainly out of love. For years, Pierre-Hugues Herbert had supplemented early singles losses, with confidence-boosting runs on the doubles court, to ensure the belief that his tennis development was on the correct trajectory. But was it? After a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 first-round loss to South African wild card Dean O’Brien — who played two-handed shots off both sides — at a USA F6 ITF Futures tournament, where Herbert had been the top seed and played from the baseline, Ronald Agenor stepped in. Not because the Haitian needed to, but because he saw similarities in Herbert and the Frenchman's tennis-loving father, Jean-Roch, to his own father, Frédéric, and older brother, Lionel, who had coached Agenor to a successful life on the ATP Tour.

Agenor, coaching a Zimbabwean player, Takanyi Garanganga, at the time, had witnessed a player who had developed his own style; away from the baseline-dominated modern power game. Recalling the encounter of February 2013, the former World No. 22 admitted six years on, “There was a void in his (Pierre-Hugues) head and a lack of confidence; a player looking for himself. His father, courtside, took more notes than I have seen anyone take. There was passion, and it was fabulous to see a Dad invest so much, but it hurt me to see such a partnership in trouble.

“Jean-Roch, who I knew a little, asked me to talk to Pierre-Hugues a little bit. I said I would do, but ‘I would like to talk to you both at the same time.’ We spent more than an hour in a café, and I started telling Pierre-Hugues that he was ‘lucky to have a father who wants the very best for you.’ There was technical mastery, forged by working with a number of coaches, but Herbert played a risky game that could not be trusted when it came to the crunch.

“I said to Jean-Roch, ‘You have a son who wants to express himself, to show his Dad he is independent. You have done everything you can, and more, but, if at a certain moment Pierre-Hugues does not want you to coach him, it is not because he does not love you.’”

The chat by Agenor, a player who dared to dream and won three ATP Tour titles from eight finals, relieved both parties. “Ronald told me something that my father has been trying to tell me for years and years, and that I hadn't listened to,” remembers Herbert. “You know, sometimes it's easier if a third person tells you something instead of your own father, for instance. I remember that it was something that really made me change. I’d often questioned what type of player I wanted to be, because I have plenty of shots. I needed to find my own balance, and it took me a while to understand that. Initially, I wanted to play from the baseline like everyone else, hitting hard. But that wasn’t my tennis. Then, I realised if I wanted to be efficient, I needed to accept that I should be different.”

The cerebral introvert had, by that stage, learnt to lose a lot, but the early wins, even when his childhood rivals on the international circuit from 2006 to 2009 were growing up fast, had enabled Herbert to continue working, providing him energy to win the junior Wimbledon doubles title with Kevin Krawietz in 2009. “All my family was amazing,” recalls Herbert, the son of two tennis coaches. “When I was younger and at tournaments with my father, my mother was working. It was a team spirit. When my father was away, my brother [Gabriel], had no father at home. He had to go to school and become older, the same for my sister [Marjolaine].

“They all made sacrifices for me, my Dad for sure. He gave me the chance to become a pro tennis player. For my development it was amazing, in my whole life. He never gave me a limit. He always told me to reach to the heights and gave me everything. He always wanted me to go with other coaches, and take in what they told me.”

Herbert became the CEO of his own company aged 23, when he began to realise the true meaning of life as a professional tennis player. The decision was soon vindcated with a practice-session call-up from Roger Federer at the 2014 Gerry Weber Open in Halle, and then, a few months later, signing up with Michal Przysiezny five minutes before the qualifying deadline for the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships and ending the week with the Tokyo trophy. It was a special moment for father and son, but also a turning point.

Today, Herbert remains in the same boat, but the concerns of whether he has sufficient ability to progress beyond a singles career-high of No. 36 in the ATP Rankings; and the angst, pain and crisis moments that create doubt, are on an all-together different scale. “Mastering the mental side is a long process, it’s not a sprint,” says Herbert, who has walked onto court with a wooden egg in his bag, a gift from a friend that acts as a lucky charm and a reminder of his journey, for the past five years. “A tennis career is a marathon, with lots of tournaments. You have to be 100 per cent positive, confident, and playing doubles on the biggest courts has helped me. Tennis fortunes can be quick to turn negative, and not wanting to play anymore. The mental side is so important as when you’re not in the right frame of mind you cannot make smart decisions. I’m now very focused and in my own world.”

Julia Lang, his girlfriend of four-and-a-half years, has given Herbert the balance to perform on the court and switch off away from the tramlines. “She has taken on greater responsibilities, but she is my girlfriend, my travel buddy, helping with my career and brightening up my days. She has a big smile and she helps me a lot. Travelling with and playing the guitar, singing, and like a lot of players, selecting my fantasy football team, takes up a lot of my time and makes me crazy too! But it’s also helpful to compartmentalise my life.”

Herbert

While Herbert may have commanded headlines for his doubles prowess — becoming the eighth men’s team in the sport’s history to complete a career Grand Slam with Nicolas Mahut at this year’s Australian Open and winning 15 trophies together in the space of four years — don’t make the mistake of categorising the amiable Frenchman solely as a doubles player. “I now consider myself a singles player that plays doubles,” says Herbert, who has already recorded singles victories over Top 15 performers Dominic Thiem, Kei Nishikori and Daniil Medvedev in 2019. “I really do get mad when I hear that I’m just a doubles player.”

Winning all four major doubles titles by the age of 27 simply accelerated Herbert’s decision to focus on singles, just as he’d hoped for as a 13-year-old wannabe. Three days after their triumph in Melbourne, he telephoned Mahut to break the news. “Our story is not ending,” reassures Herbert. “We’d like to continue playing and try to win a medal for France at Tokyo 2020.”

The old frailties of Herbert as a dangerous player, able to contest a great match but give away a lot of points, have diminished. He perseveres by rightly playing on the edge, his natural game; and is a stylist of great fluency. His service motion, with deep knee bend, full racquet take back, and exaggerated ball toss deep in the court, evokes memories of John McEnroe’s motion, and enables Herbert to launch an attack on the net — no matter the surface. His hands, as evidenced in his doubles performances alongside Mahut, are among the best on the ATP Tour; his shots have become big weapons, and with an improved baseline game, Herbert is becoming a strong and complete singles competitor.

“In the first year on tour, it was all a novelty, visiting new tournaments that I’d watched on television,” remembers Herbert. “Then, in the second year, I found it tougher, mentally. The players knew my game and it forced me to grow up, and ‘become a man’. My game, that I worked on growing up, was taken apart, my technique dissected. But I have now certainly gotten better on my groundstrokes. I gained more strength in my legs, because of numerous fitness and physio sessions, and in my head.”


Herbert’s belief that he can go out and play his game to beat the very best, stems from experience, but also having the best of both worlds in coaches, Fabrice Santoro, the double-handed magician, and Benjamin Balleret, the Monegasque who plied the majority of his career on the ATP Challenger Tour.

“They each have different views of my game, but they share their views for my benefit,” says Herbert. “With Fabrice we’ve worked a lot on my game, my footwork, to be more precise and stable. Working on drills and feeding the ball. What I like most is that they are both open to trying new things, and together we’re not scared to do so. Both can rest, and not travel as much, then bring energy on tour when ready. They both know what it takes to be a professional tennis player. There is a little more pressure on myself, as it’s a risky decision, but I am longing for good results. It’s a little more stressful, as it’s challenging, but it’s good.”

Santoro, who first came on board as a coach 19 months ago, was quick to recognise Herbert’s professionalism and ambition. “When we first started working together he was around No. 100-110 in the world,” said Santoro. “We never thought in the first year he'd stop playing doubles at a Grand Slam, but now that he has broken into the Top 40, the ambition is different. He trusts his game and is stronger. We tried to make him stronger in the legs, with better footing on the ground, because if he is stronger in the legs, he'll be more aggressive from the baseline to the net. Before he was a little weaker in the legs, and he struggled moving to balls.”

Balleret, who admits that the mistakes he made as a player have helped him learn as a coach over the past few years, feels that Herbert’s conditioning has been one of the determining factors over his consistent form. “Initially, I felt that there was a limit to his capabilities on the court, as his body or preparation wasn’t ideal. Now we’ve done a lot of work on this and it’s paying off. Pierre-Hugues is now capable of playing four to five weeks in a row.”

In reaching three ATP Tour singles finals — the 2015 Winston-Salem Open (l. to Anderson), the 2018 Shenzhen Open (l. to Nishioka) and February’s Open Sud de France in Montpelllier (l. to Tsonga) — Herbert was energised to go big; working his way through the tournament by demonstration of his work ethic and focus on the practice or match court. “I’ve felt for the past few years that I’ve gotten better in singles, particularly over the past 12 months since Roland Garros,” admits Herbert. “I want to get better in practice and learn from my matches.”

Herbert, the analyst, is often spot on. He can be hard on himself, but every champion needs that trait. Santoro and Balleret can talk freely and Herbert doesn’t take criticism in the wrong way. “I’d like to enter the Top 30 [of the ATP Rankings], but it’s a big step forward,” says Herbert. “I’d like to win my first ATP Tour title in singles, but I’d like to continue to be the best player I can be. It would be great too, to reach the second week of a Grand Slam as a singles player.”

Herbert played with great conviction in his victory over Nishikori at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters in April and with emotion, on Monday, when the chips were down at Roland Garros, to battle back from two-sets-to-love down for the first time in his career against Medvedev, one of the 2019 season’s most consistent and hard-working players. While Herbert remains a work in progress, after years of cautious optimism and questioning, with his intellect and drive anything is possible entering his physical peak.

https://www.atptour.com/en/news/herbert ... arros-2019

[Damian]

Former Champions Herbert/Mahut Off To Quick Start At Roland Garros

Spoiler:

Defending titlists Krawietz/Mies also advance
Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, the 2018 Roland Garros champions, stormed past reigning Australian Open finalists Max Purcell and Luke Saville 6-1, 6-2 in 66 minutes on Tuesday to reach the second round in Paris.

The Frenchmen have won all four Grand Slams together, triumphing on the terre battue two years ago. The sixth seeds won 85 per cent of their first-serve points and did not lose serve against the Aussies.

Another French pair, Benjamin Bonzi and Antoine Hoang, eliminated 10th seeds Raven Klaasen and Oliver Marach 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 after two hours and nine minutes. The wild cards are into the second round at their home Grand Slam for the second consecutive year.

The Frenchmen reached last year’s Montpellier final and won an ATP Challenger Tour event in Pau, France earlier this year. Bonzi and Hoang broke serve three times from 12 chances to advance.

In the next round they will play countrymen Adrian Mannarino and Benoit Paire, who defeated Frances Tiafoe and Jackson Withrow 7-5, 7-5. Bonzi and Hoang ousted Mannarino and Ugo Humbert in the first round of Roland Garros last year.

Reigning champions Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies got their title defence off to a good start with a 6-2, 6-3 victory against Kazakhs Alexander Bublik and Mikhail Kukushkin. Other notable teams that advanced were 13th seeds Jamie Murray/Neal Skupski, 2019 finalists Jeremy Chardy/Fabrice Martin and 15th seeds Jurgen Melzer/Edouard Roger-Vasselin.

https://www.atptour.com/en/news/roland- ... es-tuesday

[Damian]

Herbert/Mahut Save 1 M.P. In Second-Round Scare

Spoiler:

Murray/Skupski defeat Rome champions Granollers/Zeballos

Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut’s hopes of a second Roland Garros crown were almost ended in the second round on Saturday, but the French pair survived one match point to defeat Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock 2-6, 7-6(8), 6-4.

The 2018 champions trailed 0/3 in a second-set tie-break and needed to save match point at 7/8, before claiming victory in two hours and seven minutes. Herbert and Mahut, who became the eighth men’s doubles team to complete the Career Grand Slam at last year’s Australian Open, dropped just five points on serve in the third set and converted the only break point of the decider to complete a memorable comeback win.

The Frenchmen will next face US Open finalists Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic in the third round. Koolhof and Mektic, who reached the Hamburg European Open semi-finals last week, are yet to drop a set in Paris.

Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski became only the second team to beat Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos on clay this year. The British pairing broke serve on three occasions to defeat the Rome champions 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 on Court 12. Granollers and Zeballos drop to 18-2 on clay in 2020.

"I think we played a really good match from start to finish," said Murray. "We knew it was going to be really tough against those guys, [a] very good team and very competitive, always bringing a lot of energy to the court... [We] did well to hang in at the start of the third set after letting the second set kind of slip a little bit."

Murray and Skupski have required a final set in each of their three victories at the event so far. The 13th seeds will meet reigning champions Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies for a spot in the semi-finals. The Germans saved three match points at 4/5 in the final set to defeat Benjamin Bonzi and Antoine Hoang 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(5) on Court 11.

Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury continued their impressive run through the draw in Paris, notching a third straight-sets victory in as many matches in the French capital. The third seeds, who captured the Australian Open crown in February, beat last year’s finalists Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin 6-3, 6-2 in 65 minutes.

"[we're] very pleased," said Salisbury. "Obviously, they're a tough team. We played them here last year, lost to them in the quarter-finals. We knew it would be tough, but we played really well throughout. Obviously, it was on serve at the start and then we kind of got a lot of momentum, won quite a few games in a row. [We were] both feeling quite confident from then on, and I think we played better and better throughout the match."

Ram and Salisbury will face 12th seeds Jean Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau or US Open champions Mate Pavic and Bruno Soares in the quarter-finals.

Pablo Cuevas and Feliciano Lopez eliminated Generali Open champions Austin Krajicek and Franko Skugor 7-5, 6-4. Cuevas and Lopez will meet American duo Nicolas Monroe and Tommy Paul in the third round.

https://www.atptour.com/en/news/herbert ... -7-doubles

[Damian]

Herbert Does Double Duty In Cologne, Wins Doubles Title With Mahut

Spoiler:

Frenchmen beat Kubot/Melo in the final
Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut captured their 17th tour-level title as a team on Sunday, defeating top seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo 6-4, 6-4 to win the bett1HULKS Indoors in Cologne.

It was a busy day for Herbert, who won his final-round qualifying match for the bett1HULKS Championships — held at the same venue — earlier in the day.

“I’ve had a busy weekend I would say and I’m really happy,” Herbert said. “We started again after six months at Roland Garros and being able to share the court with him here, it’s just nice. It’s always a pleasure.

“Being able to play together, enjoy on court and win a tournament, it’s just amazing.”

Herbert and Mahut have now won multiple titles together in six consecutive seasons. Earlier this year, they triumphed in Rotterdam.

This was their fifth ATP Head2Head team clash against Kubot and Melo, whom they lead 3-2. It was the first time the two veteran duos met in a final, with the Frenchmen saving all four break points they faced.

“When we were one set up I think we were starting not to be more confident, but more relaxed,” Mahut said. “I think we played a high-level game at the end of the match.”

It was a difficult match against a team that has competed together in the Nitto ATP Finals in each of the past three years. But the second seeds managed to secure one break per set to lift the trophy.

“It’s always tough against them. We’ve played them many times,” Mahut said. “It’s always difficult. We know each other pretty well. This time [the match] was on our side. We’re really happy with the way we played.”

Herbert and Mahut earned a share of €8,840 and 250 FedEx ATP Doubles Ranking points, while Kubot and Melo pocketed a split of €6,450 and 150 points each.

https://www.atptour.com/en/news/cologne ... bles-final

[Kamileki]

[Kamileki]

[Kamileki]

2020 w liczbach:

Ranking: 83
Bilans meczów: 10-10
Tytuły: 0
Finały: 0
Zarobki: $374,311

[Lleyton]

[Damian]

[Kamileki]

[Damian]

Also in action, Pierre-Hugues Herbert dominated on serve and at the net to beat sixth-seeded Japanese star Kei Nishikori 6-1, 6-4.

“I knew I would need to be aggressive from the start, as I knew Kei would be better than me from the baseline,” said Herbert. “I cannot complain about anything today and I stuck to my game plan from the beginning to the end. I am very happy with the win. I kept moving forwards and did let him play.”

Herbert beat his first seeded player at an ATP tournament since overcoming fifth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime in the Montpellier second round in 2020. The 29-year-old completed his second victory of the year with his 11th ace, having won 25 of 30 first-service points in the 70-minute encounter.

Herbert will next face Cameron Norrie of Great Britain or fellow Frenchman Constant Lestienne.

https://www.atptour.com/en/news/tsonga- ... 21-tuesday

[Damian]

Another home favourite also advanced Thursday when Pierre-Hugues Herbert beat Brit Cameron Norrie 6-3, 6-4. Herbert also ousted former World No. 4 Kei Nishikori in straight sets in the first round.

https://www.atptour.com/en/news/medvede ... 1-thursday

[Damian]