Pierre-Hugues Herbert has revealed he initially held reservations about partnering up with Andy Murray for the men’s Wimbledon doubles, only to change his mind on account of the “special” experience afforded to him in playing alongside the Briton.
Murray returned from a five-month injury lay-off last week to win the men’s doubles title at Queen’s Club with Feliciano Lopez and is entered with Herbert, a doubles specialist, at Wimbledon.
Murray, twice a men’s singles winner at SW19, also plans to play mixed as he continues his recovery from hip-resurfacing surgery in February. Unlike Herbert, he is not playing singles.
After losing in the first round to Kevin Anderson, Herbert admitted that initially he had only wanted to focus on the singles.
But after considering Murray’s offer, the Frenchman realised it would be a “special” opportunity to take to the court with the two-time Wimbledon champion.
“That’s actually why I changed my mind, because in my first thoughts about doubles here with Andy, I was more maybe, no, I said I’m going to play only singles,” he said on Monday.
“This made me change my mind, because Andy is someone who rewrote history almost here in Wimbledon. Yeah, is the only British player – well, for a long time. It’s something so special to be by his side, and that’s why I changed my mind, because I want to live these kind of experiences.”
Herbert headed into Monday’s clash with Anderson on the back of an injury scare, having cut short his Sunday practice due to tightness in one of his quads.
“I didn’t know the pain I was feeling, so I was – yes, you start, when you’re in pain and you’re having a Grand Slam the next day, you start imagining bad things,” he said.
“But I’m more positive now that I played my match. Maybe not the best match I could play, but I was playing. My quad feels good, so, yeah, I hope it’s going to be all right. I think it’s going to be all right.”
When asked if he raised the injury worry with Murray on Sunday, Herbert, smiling, admitted: “No, no, no. As soon as I did the medical tests and it was all right, I was feeling better, because I was really scared of the tests.
But I don’t want to imagine me having to say anything to Andy about an injury or anything. So, no.”
