On Court n°9, the two Limburgers thus achieved the feat of eliminating the French Pierre-Hugues Herbert (ATP 8) and Nicolas Mahut (ATP 8), seeded n°3, holders of the trophy and authors of a Career Grand Slam. They won 6-4, 6-7 (5/7) and 6-3.
“It’s really nice,” said the right-hander from Hasselt. “We’ve had a lot of bad luck lately and the coin finally fell on the right side. It’s the reward for all our work. Frankly, it was very nice to play such a first round. There was like a Davis Cup atmosphere. The stands were full and the fans were making a lot of noise. We entered the game very well and we continued to believe in it, even following the loss of the second set. And at the finish, we might – to be a little better returned than them.”
Sander Gillé and Joran Vliegen will face Australians Luke Saville and Jordan Thompson in the second round, winners of the pair made up of Serbian Dusan Lajovic and Czech Jiri Vesely 7-6 (8/6) and 7-5. “With our coach, Jeff Coetzee, we are working hard and we feel we are on the right track,” continued the left-hander from Maaseik.
“When we saw the draw we laughed a little bit, but we took this game as an opportunity to show what we were capable of. We had nothing to lose and we bit our teeth into the ball. Our expectations are high, but we’re keeping our feet on the ground. It just gives us a lot of confidence going forward.”
