Late decision reaps mixed title for Siegemund and Roger-Vasselin

Siegemund, who already owns mixed doubles silverware with Mate Pavic from the 2016 US Open and from the women’s doubles with Vera Zvonareva from the 2020 US Open, was a rock throughout the hour and 40-minute final.

“This was a last-minute thing. I didn't want to play mixed here because I was in singles and doubles also and then Edouard called me and texted me two hours before the deadline,” Siegemund said. “I was like, I always wanted to play with him and was always somehow not working out and then I was like 'I can't say no. Now he's finally free, he wants to play’, so I think it was a good decision that I signed up.

“Thank you so much for playing with me. I enjoyed some mixed before but this was special. I really enjoyed it and also having the fans in the back through him that was really amazing.”

A decade after his sole Grand Slam doubles triumph at Roland-Garros alongside Julien Benneteau, this was a special moment for Roger-Vasselin in front of his home crowd, including his father Christophe, who beat world No.1 Jimmy Connors to reach the singles semi-finals in 1983.

“Obviously was very special for me to win at home. Really thankful for Laura to say yes to me, like, two hours before the deadline. It's a nice story, and at the end of the week, here we have the trophy here," Roger-Vasselin said.

"It's the biggest tournament for me, so having the trophy here 10 years after I won in doubles also here, it's quite special. I really enjoy to win also on that court with the crowd with us, yeah, it was amazing. I will have these memories for at least 10 more years..”

The No.2 seeds made the brighter start when they broke Skupski immediately and held to love for 2-0. They faced seven break points across their next three service games, but they held their ground and sustained the advantage to a one-set lead after 44 minutes.

The German-French duo began to press at 1-all in the second set and upped their aggression on return to break Krawczyk to love.

Every time the question was asked of them they had come up with the goods.

It was not until the fourth seeds were trailing a set and 2-4 that they finally won a deciding point, on Krawczyk’s serve, to avoid the double break when Roger-Vasselin pushed a backhand long.

Krawczyk and Skupski were looking to add a Roland-Garros crown to their two Wimbledon mixed doubles titles together and had planted a seed of doubt in their opponents’ minds.

When the Frenchman hesitated on a high backhand at net it proved costly when two points later, Krawczyk and Skupski finally converted on their ninth break point to level at 4-all.

There was a further wobble when Roger-Vasselin was unable to convert a championship point on serve at 5-4, but there was no mistake two games later as a zoned-in Siegemund served out the victory.

“It must be very special to obviously win in France for you, Edouard,” Skupski said. “I want to say thanks to Des yet again for playing with me. We lost in the final of Australia but we'll keep going and play Wimbledon together and hopefully we can go one step further.”