Mahut to seek new doubles partner for French Open defense

Samantha Stosur and Shuai Zhang’s dreams of a 2019 calendar-year Grand Slam are alive at this point, as are Barbora Krejcikova and Rajeev Ram’s. However, the men’s doubles champions at the Australian Open are officially out of the running.

Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert, who completed the career Slam in Melbourne this year, won’t be defending their title at the French Open or contending for a second Wimbledon title. According to multiple reports, Herbert wants to focus on his singles game for the next few months, feeling that the time is now to make a move in that discipline.

In February, Herbert reached his third career singles final, finishing runner-up to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Marseille.

That result brought Herbert to a career-high No. 36 in the world at the time: He’s currently ranked No. 49. Just last week, the 28-year-old beat Fernando Verdasco and world No. 6 Kei Nishikori in Monte Carlo, a testament to his singles talent.

Herbert isn’t the first player to want to halt a standout doubles run to put some emphasis on his singles game. A few years ago, Jack Sock took a step back from his winning ways with Vasek Pospisil, whom he teamed up with to take titles at Wimbledon and Indian Wells. Both wanted to focus on singles and Sock eventually landed in the Top 10 in singles before slumping last year and actually finding doubles to be his saving grace.

Stepping away from a successful partnership can be a gamble—and one that doesn’t always pay off. After a surprise run to the Wimbledon title with Jonathan Marray, Frederik Nielsen decided to concentrate on singles. However, the Dane never made it out of the low triple digits in the standings, but he’s back to being a Top 50-ranked doubles player.

Herbert and Mahut are expected to reunite during the summer hard-court season. Perhaps by the time of their resumed partnership, Herbert will have reached a new singles high.

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