The Bryan brothers: How ‘dual energy’ fueled tennis’ greatest double play of all time

CNN
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When you spend every moment of every day with the other, eating, sleeping, training, competing, it’s hardly surprising that a great partnership would develop, especially if you share the same DNA.

For Bob and Mike Bryan, their dual energy was at the heart of their victory and title. tennis at court, a synergy that only grew stronger as they traveled the world together for the better part of 23 years.

The Bryan brothers, as they became known in the tennis community and beyond, announced that they would retire from the sport in August 2020 as the most successful doubles team in history: 16 grand slam titles, 119 tour-level titles and 438 weeks in the world rankings. 1.

Their partnership culminated in 2012 and 2013, when they were virtually unstoppable in 12 months, winning Olympic gold and all four majors.

When everything was going well and we were really positive, it was kind of eerie that our feet were moving at exactly the same time and we just knew where to be, says Mike. CNN Sports. It was like a freight train when we were hot.

This year French Open it will be 20 years since the identical twins from California won their first grand slam title, although they had little sense of the immense success that was to come.

Instead, they focused on securing a spot on the US Davis Cup team by impressing captain Patrick McEnroe at Roland Garros, which they duly did.

Their progress through the French Open doubles draw was swift and ruthless, the brothers sweeping aside opponent after opponent in straight sets before a nervous breakdown on the eve of the final almost derailed their path to the title.

At the time, you think it’s a one-time deal and you never know if you’re going to get there again, says Mike, reflecting on the 2003 French Open campaign. We just kept thinking about it, it stuck in our heads.

Fueled by adrenaline, they won the last 16 points of their final against Paul Haarhuis and Yevgeni Kafelnikov to win 7-6 6-3, setting the stage for the success that soon followed.

We partied all night, Bob says. We went straight from the club. I think it was a photo taken at 9:00 a.m. at Riemukaarä with the awards and the photos are unusable. That’s why you probably never saw it because we were so tired.

Some tennis players switch between singles and doubles, but the Bryan brothers dedicated their entire careers to doubles and were steadfast in their commitment to each other.

It wasn’t until Bob, the older twin by a couple of minutes, had hip surgery in 2018 that Mike looked for a new partner and won Wimbledon and the US Open alongside American Jack Sock.

We played together every day and lived together and just spent every moment together, says Mike. It worked on the field, we were always on the same page and moved as one unit.

We knew we were never going to be apart. And that kind of gave us that confidence too; you know you’re never going to turn your back on your brother and look for another partner.

Bob agrees that singles were never on the bros’ radar.

We always had more pleasure winning the singles game, maybe it was a double thing, he tells CNN Sport. But even our sponsors put bonuses in our contracts that were tailored for doubles, they wanted us to go for doubles. It came more naturally to us.

With Bob left-handed and Mike right-handed, the pair were a natural fit on the tennis court, although unlike most left-right doubles, they tended to play on the backhand side when they returned to the serve exchange they did before the 2003 French Open.

They were practically inseparable during their professional careers, even to the point of sharing a bank account. Tempers boiled over at times, especially during practice when they held each other to high standards.

We practiced every time as if we were playing in the finals, says Mike. Bob would hit me if I missed a couple of balls and Id hit him and we had some rough practices. We had physical altercations, but it kept the quality very high.

We actually only practiced once a day because we were going so hard. ke fills the maximum 90 minutes, but we didn’t even drink water. We probably only used two or three balls and just went drill drill drill drill.

In the end we were just drenched in sweat. We practiced like it was a big final and he didn’t let me slack off for sure.

Although fiercely competitive, the brothers never forgot their role as entertainers. The breast hump, or Bryan hump as The Stanford Daily called it in their college days, was their trademark after winning a tournament or scoring a big point.

Feeding off the crowd’s energy, running, jumping and body slamming became an act they inherited from another American doubles team, Luke and Murphy Jensen.

Coincidentally, the Jensen brothers won their only grand slam title at the 1993 French Open, 10 years before the Bryans captured their first.

“We started doing it at Stanford, and then we took it on tour,” Bob says of the origins of the Bryans’ chest bump.

It wasn’t really welcomed on the tour for the first couple of years because those salty veterans thought it was kind of disrespectful to them.

Honestly, we were just excited to be there and happy to be professionals traveling the world and eventually it was accepted and it became our thing.

Since retiring ahead of the 2020 US Open, the brothers have been enjoying a slower pace of life. After spending 40 weeks a year on tour, they now have more time with their families and can pursue another shared passion: music.

Bob plays keyboards, Mike guitar and drums; together they have performed in bars, clubs and even tennis tournaments as part of the Bryan Brothers Band.

Our music rooms have expanded, Bob says, and my kids play now, so I get to jam with them.

That doesn’t mean tennis has disappeared from their lives. They continue to play legend events in grand slam tournaments as well as the occasional exhibition tournament, and Bob has recently been named USAs Davis Cup captain ahead of this year’s event.

But the days of intense competition, furious workouts and soaring chests are behind us.

When you retire, it’s hard to restart the car once you turn it off, Bob says.

We knew we wanted to play as long as we were mentally and physically involved, so when we retired we had no regrets.

We both feel like we don’t have any unfulfilled dreams that we wish marriage had achieved while on tour. I think we felt like we poured everything we could into our careers.