Q&A: Austin Krajicek, Doubles World No. 1
Austin Krajicek and Ivan Dodig lift the 2023 Roland Garros men's doubles trophy. Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images.
Austin Krajicek, Dallas resident and former Texas A&M standout player, reached the highest hights of his career this June when he, along with his partner, Ivan Dodig won the 2023 French Open at Roland Garros. With that victory, he also secured the ranking of men’s doubles world no. 1.
Krajicek is coached by another Texan, Philip Farmer, and over the last few years has put together an outstanding run on the professional men’s doubles tour. USTA Texas sat down with Krajicek after his Roland Garros victory to chat about what this achievement means to him and his team.
USTA Texas: When we talked last (see our profile of Krajicek in the USTA Texas section of the May issue of Inside Tennis magazine), you'd mentioned, still feeling like there was a little bit of unfinished business at the French. Going into Paris, what were you expecting the tournament to be like and then, what was it like finally winning at the end?
Austin Krajicek: I think there was definitely a sense of unfinished business. […] I think going into it this year with such a difficult loss in the finals last year, it really kind of stuck with us and looking back, we needed that.
It was good for us to get that experience and be on that stage and just deal with that feeling and [to know] what to expect when you get out there. So I think going into this year, we were a bit more experienced. I mean, obviously Ivan [Dodig] has tons of experience and he’s one of the best players ever, but I probably did and we approached it the way we do all the other grand slams.
I think we tried to play the right way and approach each match individually. We had a tough match in the first round, but we were down a break in the third set and I didn't look great at the time, but we kind of stuck with our guns. We played a good match there and had a couple other three hour matches.
We just tried to approach each day individually and then kind of played better as the tournament progressed. We had one of our better matches in the semis against Granollers and Zeballos, a fantastic team, especially on the dirt. We had a tough semi with them last year as well. And then in the finals we played even better. So it was cool to finish the job there.
It was a surreal feeling at the end. I mean, obviously, the [world] no. 1 thing being bundled in there was pretty awesome, but I think it was really just about kind of finishing the job and getting my first grand slam. It’s been such a huge goal [for me] and my coach Philip Farmer, as a team for such a long time, it was really cool to accomplish that together.
The emotions were hard to put into words at the end.
How did you celebrate?
We had a couple beers in the players area there, at the end, just the team. And it was cool to have [Texas A&M’s] Coach [Steve] Denton there as well and Jordan Szabo, another teammate of mine at A&M. Who's the assistant women's coach [for Texas A&M] now and then Ivan had a big family group as well.
So it was cool to have that instant celebration with them and then to get home right away the next morning and just to enjoy it with my wife. My parents were actually in [Dallas] as well, so it was really nice to kind of have a little get together with everybody and just let it sink in.
So no new cars yet, right?
I mean that's not necessarily my thing and it's a quick turnaround [to prepare for grass court season] for us. The good and bad thing about tennis is there's always another tournament next week. So it's a quick turnaround for us and we're back to work Friday morning.
You mentioned your coach Philip Farmer. What does this mean to you and him? So maybe talk a little bit about that relationship and also about what these accomplishments mean for both of you.
Yeah, it's been incredible for our team.
I’ve worked with Philip [Farmer] now for coming on two years. And, we set a lot of goals when we started working together. One of the first tournaments he traveled with me for was Cincinnati in 2021 and we made the finals there with Stevie [Johnson] and we had a great start.
We set some lofty goals at that time. And sometimes, you believe them but they can still feels a little bit far-fetched at the time. So we were like ‘absolutely we can do it’ and it was really cool to kind of have them all come together.
This year we accomplished some big ones including winning our first Master Series [tournament]. We were able to do it in Monte-Carlo, after having three tough finals in a row for Masters Series events – including in Miami and in Paris last year – so it was great to get that done and then things just kind of snowballed into the French Open. We weren't necessarily thinking about that during the tournament because we had so many difficult matches back to back. But [winning a Grand Slam championship] and then also the number one ranking which were the other two big goals for our year.
In tennis you're always back in the next tournament and there's so many things that we still want to do. Another great thing about tennis is there's always 500 things you can do better. So, for our team, not just myself, but me and Ivan together – there's so many things we can improve on.
It's exciting moving into the summer. I think we play great on grass and obviously, we grew up in the summer hard courts in the US, so we're looking forward to having a good rest of the year, and hopefully we can continue to knock out some big accomplishments.
Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images.
Austin Krajicek and his coach, Philip Farmer hold the Roland Garros Men's Doubles trophy.
"In tennis you're always back in the next tournament and there's so many things that we still want to do. Another great thing about tennis is there's always 500 things you can do better." - Austin Krajicek
Talk a little bit about your relationship with Ivan. What's made you and him so successful as a team?
Doubles adds another element. There's another drama element of being with a partner so much. You arguably spend more time with your doubles partner than you do with your significant others a lot of times. You’ve got to get along: you gotta get along on the court, you’ve gotta get along off the court … Obviously anybody can make it work when you're winning, but when you're losing or when you have some tough, tough stretches in tournaments, and tough losses especially. There can be a lot of difficult moments.
Being able to stick together and having a similar mentality, not only the way you approach matches, but the way you approach practice, the way you handle losses, and handle those tough times. I think it’s rare to find someone that sees that eye to eye on all of those.
I think we match well mentally in our approach to the game. There's so many things I can learn from Ivan. He's such a hard worker, he’s persistent and has such great perseverance that I've tried to implement that for me as well. I think we mesh well on that front and then of course, on the tennis side we both play aggressive. We both come forward. He's obviously one of the best returners of all time, so that helps me relax a little bit on my side and take care of serving stuff, with me being a lefty.
I think we just mesh well and so do our teams off the court. So, with Phil (Farmer), and his brother, [Mladen Dodig], who is his coach, and our physio and stuff, it's a great atmosphere.
Do you have anything you'd like to share with kind of everyone back home in Texas?
It's exciting to be able to accomplish those goals. I guess to tell them that as an adopted Texan, if not a born Texan, you can accomplish your goals and maybe even hold the number one ranking at the moment.
It's a pretty cool thing and I'm excited after Wimbledon to get a little downtime and be at home and eat some good barbecue and hang out in the summer heat.
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