On opposite coasts but still on the same wavelength, the identical twins Bob and Mike Bryan, the most successful men’s doubles team in tennis history, are retiring at age 42, effective immediately.
“We just both feel it in our guts that it is the right moment,” said Mike Bryan, the older of the twins by 2 minutes. “At this age it takes so much work to go out there and compete. We love playing still but we don’t love getting our bodies ready to get out there. The recovery is tougher. We feel like we were competitive this year, last year, the year before. We want to go out right now where we still have some good tennis left.”
The Bryans, exuberant and exceptionally fan-friendly Californians whose trademark was the chest bump, were raised by their tennis-teaching parents, Wayne and Kathy, to be champions and ambassadors for the game.
“There was a master plan,” said Wayne Bryan in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
The Bryan brothers became prolific winners during their 22-year professional career: claiming 16 Grand Slam titles in 30 finals and 119 tour titles playing together, which was nearly always the case. They were ranked No. 1 as a team for a total of 438 weeks and finished 10 seasons as the world’s top-ranked doubles team.
All those are men’s Open Era records, often by wide margins. There may have been greater doubles players — John Newcombe, Roy Emerson and John McEnroe all deserve consideration and all played when doubles had a higher profile and more singles stars played both.
But the Bryans, by force of personality and longevity, bridged some of the gap. No men’s team has achieved more (or signed more autographs). The Australians Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde are a distant second in the Open era with 11 Grand Slam titles and 61 tour titles.
At their peak in 2012 and 2013, the Bryans held all four major titles and the Olympic gold medal, often overwhelming the opposition with their positive energy, telepathic communication and complementary skill sets.
“We were pretty much unstoppable for those years,” Bob said on a Zoom call. “We were down a break of serve and smiling, and not one bit of negativity drifted into our game.”
They have had plenty of fraternal spats through the years: In 2006, Bob broke Mike’s guitar in anger after a scuffle at Wimbledon (they went on to win the title). But the Bryans appeared to mellow as their career stretched on in an era when advances in nutrition, training and recovery have allowed many tennis stars to endure: see Roger Federer, 39, and Serena Williams, 38.
Bob, a left-hander, had the bigger serve and more explosive game. Mike, a right-hander, had the more consistent returns and rock-solid volleys.
They were fine players on their own: Bob won the N.C.A.A. singles championship in 1998 as a sophomore when they were attending Stanford University, where they won two team titles.
But together the twins were transcendent and also more at peace. When playing singles, comparisons were inevitable, which could generate tension. When they were juniors, their parents generally did not allow them to play one another in tournaments, instead having them take turns defaulting when draws brought them together.
But when playing doubles, they were a unit, their successes and setbacks fully shared.
“A lot of kids who play tennis, they dream of being No. 1 in the world in singles,” Wayne Bryan said. “But with identical twin brothers with the exact same DNA and the exact same parents and same coaching and same club, that’s pretty competitive. How can you be No. 1 in the world if you’re No. 2 in your own bedroom? So we never wanted them to play and compete against each other. They were born to play doubles.”
Wayne Bryan was a former No. 1 player at UC Santa Barbara, and Kathy Bryan was once ranked No. 11 in the United States. They were teaching pros and part-owners at the Cabrillo Racquet Club in Camarillo, Calif., which had 17 courts and a fitness room.
The boys started early, hitting balloons with rackets in their living room at age 2 and winning their first title together at age 6. By age 8, they had written down the goal of reaching No. 1 in the world and posted it on the family’s refrigerator.
“In some ways you think, if not them, then who?” Kathy Bryan said of her sons’ success. “Because they had kind of a perfect little petri dish to grow up in with love, and tennis was our livelihood, and we both had experience in the game.”
But Kathy Bryan also knew the odds. “You think, how can they ever rise above the hordes of great players?” she said.
The Bryans did not have a television in order to encourage their sons to focus on tennis, academics, personal relationships and another family passion: music.
The twins would later found the Bryan Brothers Band, playing gigs as well as matches as they traveled the world with Bob on keyboard and Mike on drums or guitar.
At Stanford, when they were assigned to different dormitories as freshmen, Bob set up a mattress on the floor of Mike’s room and slept there instead. Long into adulthood, they shared a bank account. They still speak or text multiple times a day even though Bob, his wife, Michelle, and three young children are based in Hallandale Beach, Fla., and Mike and his wife, Nadia, and their infant son now live in Camarillo.
“We’re still best friends, and we just have a stronger connection now than ever,” Mike said. “You know how tough it can be as brothers to get along all the time. And we made it work for so long in high-pressure situations, eating every meal together, spending every practice together.
“For a lot of people that gets pretty stale, but we kept our marriage strong. We needed a little therapy here and there, but in the end it worked out, and looking back at our longevity, that’s something we can be very proud of, that we did it day in and day out together.”
Going out together was important, too. The plan for 2020 was to play a farewell tour, and then retire after the United States Open.
But the coronavirus pandemic disrupted that plan, halting play on the men’s tour for five months. The twins did play in World Team Tennis in late July and early August, but when it was confirmed that the U.S. Open would be played without spectators, they decided to retire rather than take part.
“We weren’t in this last year to just play the matches and to get points or to make money,” Bob said. “It was to really say our thank-yous to everybody and feel the atmosphere one last time. The crowds — that’s what make the U.S. Open magical in our minds. We really applaud the U.S. Open for getting going, and all the work they’ve put in to give tennis back to the fans on TV and to give players opportunities to compete again and make money. But it just wasn’t right for us.”
The Bryans once thought they would retire after the 2012 Olympics in London, where they won the last significant title they lacked, and they stopped playing together abruptly in 2018 when Bob badly injured his hip and elected to have hip resurfacing surgery. Mike continued on that year with a new partner, the American Jack Sock, and won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open: giving him a total of 18 Grand Slam men’s doubles titles, two more than his brother.
After the twins reunited in 2019, they won three more tour titles together. “I was in his corner and waiting for him to come back,” Mike said Bob, who during his recovery sometimes attended Mike’s practices with Sock using a cane.
“It’s not always rosy,” Mike said, adding, “I went through a divorce, which was not easy on even Bob’s and my relationship, because it seeped into our tennis. I wasn’t playing my best level for a year or two, just because I wasn’t super happy. But luckily we’ve had each other to lean on.”
Their last title — their 119th — came in Delray Beach, Fla., in February, which also turned out to be their final ATP event. They then traveled to Hawaii and won their final official match: playing for the United States Davis Cup team in a qualifying-round victory over Uzbekistan just before the tour hiatus.
During the forced break, the brothers and their families initially set up in Camarillo, quarantining in the same pod with Wayne and Kathy. Both brothers noticed that the competitive flame had dimmed. They plan to keep playing exhibitions but raising their families is their new shared priority.
“The drive we had for so many years that got us out of bed and into the gym and had us thinking about tennis nonstop, it’s just not there,” Mike said.
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