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FRENCH OPEN

France’s Mahut and Herbert clinch another French Open doubles title

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France’s Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut celebrate with the trophy.PHOTO: REUTERS

Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut became the first French pair to win their home Grand Slam twice when they defeated Kazakhs Alexander Bublik and Andrey Golubev 4-6 7-6(1) 6-4 in the men’s doubles final at Roland Garros on Saturday (June 12).

Herbert and Mahut, who have won all four majors in doubles together, added to their 2018 French Open title after recovering from a shaky start.

They saved three match points in the semi-finals against Colombians Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah.

The only other home favourites to lift the trophy were Henri Leconte and Yannick Noah in 1984 and Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in 2014.

It is Herbert and Mahut’s fifth Grand Slam title after their 2018 French Open triumph and titles at the 2015 U.S. Open, Wimbledon 2016 and the 2019 Australian Open.

They only lost one Grand Slam final, their first, at the 2015 Australian Open.

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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