Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Daniel Nestor are through to the semifinals of the Citi Open after their straight sets win over Oliver Marach and Fabrice Martin. Roger-Vasselin is coming off of a Wimbledon final in which he and partner Julien Benneteau lost to countryman Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert in straight sets.
VAVEL USA had an exclusive sit down with Roger-Vasselin after his quarterfinal doubles match at the Citi Open to discuss all things from his plans for the rest of the year to not getting chosen for Rio.
On Mentally Being Able To Serve Out For The Match
VAVEL USA asked, “After your gifted a break by a double fault late in the set, how do you make sure you’re mentally still in it while serving for the match?” Roger-Vasselin said it’s always tough to win the match while serving out for it. The Canadian-French duo was up 4-3 on serve in the second set before a horrendous game by Robert Lindstedt and Viktor Troicki, with the Swede serving, and double faulted at 0-40 to gift the break to the French-Canadian duo.
He continued by saying it was tough because they had to save break point in the end.
On His Wimbledon Finals Experience
As mentioned earlier, Roger-Vasselin lost in the Gentlemen’s Doubles Final at Wimbledon with Julien Benneteau to Herbert and Mahut. The Frenchman said, “It was not easy. It was the first time in history that four French players were playing on Centre Court at Wimbledon so it was an amazing for France, even for us to face them in the final.”
He continued by saying it was not the result he wanted, but that it was a great tournament to get to the final, but it was not easy playing his own countrymen from France in such a big event. He finished it off by saying that he and Benneteau played their game on court and did their best, but that their opponents were just better in the end.
On Playing With Zimonjic and Benneteau
Julien Benneteau was out for a few months with an injury, leaving the Frenchman in search of a doubles partner while his compatriot was out. Roger-Vasselin played with Nenad Zimonjic from Indian Wells to Barcelona. Their best result was semifinals showing at the BNP Paribas Open, losing to familiar foes Herbert and Mahut.
Roger-Vasselin went into detail discussing what each player brought to the table for his doubles game. “I think Zimonjic is a very nice player. He has a very nice career already. He knows how to play doubles definitely. He taught me the little things like where to be on the court, the placement.” He followed up talking about Benneteau saying that they’re singles players playing doubles and we’re better friends and like playing with each other which brings good chemistry so it’s one of the keys to success by playing with someone you like.
On Not Being Chosen For The Olympics
World doubles number ones Herbert and Mahut will be the top seeds headed into Rio, but France opted to go for their top two singles players, Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, as their second doubles team. Gasquet had to withdraw from the Olympics unfortunately and was replaced by Gael Monfils.
Roger-Vasselin said it was one of his biggest goals for the last few years was to reach the Olympics and continued by saying he did his best to play as much doubles as possible to get his ranking as high up as he can. Despite that, the plethora of French players came back to haunt him in this case. “There are just so many good French players. We are only allowed to have six players on the team, and that’s why I couldn’t go. Only six players who were already chosen so this time it’s not for me, so I will have to wait four years now,” he finished with.
On Plans and Expectations For The Rest Of The Year In Singles And Doubles
Currently. Roger-Vasselin is 167 in the world in singles with two tour-level wins this year, but he’s on the complete opposite end of the rankings in doubles as he is at number seven in the world, one off his career-high.
The Frenchman looks to get his ranking back up as well as meet some big goals in doubles. “One of the biggest goals is to win a Grand Slam, the US Open, with Benneteau and qualify for the Masters at the end of the year.” He said that they played there two years ago and loved the atmosphere, and it was a great atmosphere.
He believes they are playing well even though they are currently ninth in the Race to London. He added by saying they have to continue to fight in every tournament.
In singles, he said he will play the qualifiers of the US Open and hope to qualify just like he did at Wimbledon a couple weeks back. He will also play a couple Challengers in France at the end of the year to get the ranking back up. He continued by saying it’s tough to play both singles and doubles with one ranking very high and one very low.
He said because he is in the semifinals here with Daniel Nestor, he may not be able play the qualifiers for the Rogers Cup in Toronto. If he loses, he’ll be able to play the qualifiers of the Rogers Cup, but he loves being on court and hopes to get to the final and win the event.
You can follow Edouard Roger-Vasselin on Twitter @ERogerVasselin.