Ekaterina Makarova, Elena Vesnina – Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Congratulations to the victory. This was quite a tough, close call. What made you mentally so strong that you did it in the tiebreak and the best of 10?

ELENA VESNINA: At the beginning — I’m always talking, so yeah. (Laughter.)

At the beginning of the match we felt really good rhythm. We felt we were kind of controlling the game, you know, even knowing that Shuai Peng and Andrea Hlavackova, really good players. They play final Australian Open and knowing they are having a great season.

So after these rain delays, we kind of — it was too much of the rain delays, to be honest. I think everyone would lose their rhythm. Even Roger, I think, would lose his rhythm after this kind of on-and-off, on-and-off. (Laughter.)

And they came back to the game, you know. They had pretty good games on their serves. Then we were just a little bit tight.

EKATERINA MAKAROVA: And maybe unlucky, because we had — when we came back it was 2-1 and 40-Love and then 4-All and two games 40-15. Then to decide the point, just was a little bit unlucky.

Q. So you found your rhythm back?

ELENA VESNINA: We don’t know how.

EKATERINA MAKAROVA: Actually, because it was actually very tough and especially final and deciding tiebreak. Then, in the end, yeah, somehow, I don’t know, we were playing so good, but we were — I got nervous on my serve. Then after the match we were talking about Elena even on Olympics game —

ELENA VESNINA: We were not that nervous like today. Yeah, always on and off, because you feel like you have this match. It’s just in your hands. It’s not like you won it, but it’s like you know what you have to do. Then after these rain delays, you don’t know what do. It’s kind of like such a strange rhythm, yeah.

Q. It seemed like after maybe the third rain delay, sounded like you were trying to amp yourself up a little bit. You were getting quite vocal, and that one game, you weren’t able to close it.

ELENA VESNINA: Yeah.

Q. Seemed like maybe that might have been the moment where you started to get things going?

ELENA VESNINA: On one game after the rain delay, I think I didn’t hit one ball with the center of my racquet. I was just missing the volleys. I felt like I don’t see the ball. I need the glasses, you know.

EKATERINA MAKAROVA: And then it got dark.

ELENA VESNINA: And then it get dark, you know, with the lights, as well, it’s still different. We were pumping ourselves. Definitely we were trying to support each other, because we know how tough is it. It’s deciding tiebreak. You know, it’s deciding deuces and everything. It can go away so quick, so you have to be very, very focused and you have to be very supportive in this moment.

Q. How does this set you up for the rest of the year? First win of 2017. How does that set you up?

EKATERINA MAKAROVA: I don’t know. I’m not a future…

Well, it’s a good start, and we are playing good tennis in doubles, especially this tournament. Every match was pretty good doubles tennis, you know, and we were really enjoying how we play, and even it was a deciding tiebreak before. But we will play, of course, big tournaments and hope it will go well.

ELENA VESNINA: And I will just add a little bit. Winning the trophy like here in Dubai, it’s very prestigious trophy.

EKATERINA MAKAROVA: First time for us.

ELENA VESNINA: First time for us. First time we played final here. We were just passing by the corridor, and we saw the trophy. We were, like, hopefully the doubles is going to be the same.

EKATERINA MAKAROVA: This is 25th tournament like that.

ELENA VESNINA: Anniversary. Yes, so we were just really pleased with the result, because, yeah, winning such a big title, it’s always giving us some confidence, some positive emotions.

Next tournament we are gonna play in Indian Wells, also important tournament. Yeah, it definitely brings us some good feelings.

Q. Would you say your singles helps your doubles, or is it the other way around, the doubles helps you when you go after singles?

ELENA VESNINA: It’s both ways.

EKATERINA MAKAROVA: Both, yeah. Every time is both. (Laughter.)

ELENA VESNINA: Sometimes if we are losing in singles first round, we’re like, okay, we have to recover in doubles. Sometimes when we playing good singles and doubles together, we’re like getting so tired at the end, we just, like, don’t talk, even. Oh, my God, doubles.

It’s not easy. But we had some good wins in Dubai in singles this year, and doubles was just great for us. So we just gonna take only good things about that and then hopefully we will do better in singles next tournament, right?

EKATERINA MAKAROVA: Right.