Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies surprised even themselves when they won Roland Garros as an unseeded pairing in 2019, four months after winning their first ATP Tour title at the New York Open.
“Of course, it was a big surprise that we won the French Open in 2019,” Krawietz said, speaking to ATPTour.com ahead of Indian Wells.
“We were playing a Challenger two weeks before. We did well on the big stage. After the French Open, it was also tricky to handle it somehow, because every week our opponents were the best in the world. We had to get used to it, and we handled it well... We believed in ourselves that we can beat the top guys and be one of the best doubles teams in the world.”
They went on to reach the semi-finals at the US Open and the Rolex Paris Masters later that season. When they defended their Roland Garros title in 2020, dropping just one set as the eighth seeds, it was a different experience from their maiden triumph.
“The mindset changed,” explained Mies. “From Challengers, we worked our way up to the ATP Tour and now we’re an established top doubles team. [We] want to stay there and get even higher over the next few years.”
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The countrymen first teamed in 2017 and have played together regularly since 2018, save for a stretch in 2021 when Mies was recovering from a knee injury. But the Cologne native felt the time apart served their partnership well.
“I think it actually helped us,” he said. “Of course it was a shame that I had to stop after we defended the French and had a good end of the year, and then I had to stop for nine months. It was tough for me. Not easy, also mentally, because we were really motivated to keep going.
“Of course you have a lot of time to think about a lot of different things. I realised — we knew it before — but I realised again how special our relationship is, how special our connection is on the court. How well we play together and how good this whole setup is and what we’ve built over the years.
"You realise when you have some time off… [it’s like when] you break up with your girlfriend and then you come back together, and you realise what you had before, which is special. Really happy to be back.”
Reunited in 2022, the pair won the Barcelona and Munich titles in consecutive April weeks before reaching the quarter-finals at the ATP Masters 1000s in Madrid and Rome. They enter Paris at 10th in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Team Rankings.
While Mies and Krawietz are not defending champions this year at Roland Garros — with Mies injured, Krawietz reached the 2021 quarter-finals with Horia Tecau — they enter the clay Grand Slam on a 12-match tournament win streak as a team.
“The conditions are great for us. We really like to play on clay,” said Krawietz, a Munich resident.
But just like in their two titles runs, the German will not enter Paris with outsized expectations. Instead, they’ll hope to continue their strong form by taking a match-by-match approach.
“Both times we didn’t think about the title before the tournament or during the tournament," Mies explained. "That’s how we did it [in 2019] and that’s how we defended it. We just thought, ‘Who is the next opponent, what are the tactics, what are we going to look for in the match?’
“I think the most important thing is to enjoy it and have fun and the rest will come.”
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