Doubles tennis champions, identical twins Bob and Mike Bryan ride passion, friendship to top

Bob Bryan, left, and twin brother Mike were the world’s No.1 men’s doubles team four times in five years, competed in seven straight Grand Slam finals — an Open Era record — and have 49 ATP victories and an Olympic bronze medal.

They have played before countless crowds around the world, won each of tennis' crown jewel events for a career Grand Slam and are the first men's doubles team to rank No. 1 four times in a five-year span. But two months ago, 30-year-old identical twins Bob and Mike Bryan found themselves on a different kind of stage — and feeling more than a little nervous before the 25,000 spectators hanging on their every move. Of course, these moves had nothing to do with hitting winners on the hardcourts of the U.S. and Australian opens, the grass of Wimbledon or the clay of Roland Garros. They involved Bob serving up a keyboard solo and Mike taking a swing at acoustic rhythm guitar with a little solo of his own, while sitting in with the Counting Crows at the Ford Amphitheater in Tampa. "That was a dream come true," said Bob, sitting with Mike in the weight room at the Saddlebrook Resort, where they live and train part of each year. "It's something we've really dreamed about for a long time, playing on stage with an incredible band like that."

The Bryan brothers have been big fans of the band since the 1990s. They met Counting Crows drummer Jim Bogios last summer at Wimbledon and helped him get tickets to the men's singles final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

"I hit on the grass with him at the All England Club, and he wanted to repay us," Mike said.

They helped Bogios with tickets again at the U.S. Open, where they won the title a second time in September, and the drummer mentioned that they should plan to sit in with the band for a song on tour. Just in case, Bob learned the song Bogios suggested, Hanging Around, but as time passed, they forgot about it.

"I thought he was just throwing it out to be nice," Mike said. "But we were flying in to Tampa the night of their concert, and I get a text when we land that says, 'You guys are sitting in tonight. You're not getting out of it.' And I started getting nervous, thinking no way is this happening."

But their rock concert debut went off without a hitch — one more harmonic moment for a chart-topping tennis twosome doing a lot more these days than hanging around.

Doubles is traditionally overshadowed by the glitzier singles game and marquee names that put fans in the stands. But since establishing their dominance in 2003, the Bryans have done their part to enhance the profile of the pursuit — and they've given the United States a firm grip on doubles play in the process.

That was more evident than ever in December 2007 in Portland, Ore., at the 32nd annual Davis Cup. Bob, a left-hander who is 6-4, 200 pounds, and Mike, a right-hander who is 6-3, 192 pounds, employed their aggressive, attacking style to sweep Russia's Nikolay Davydenko and Igor Andreev.

Their 7-6, 6-4, 6-2 triumph clinched America's first Davis Cup crown in 12 years. It was their 13th doubles victory in 14 Davis Cup appearances, and the crowd of 13,000, along with a national television audience, saw the exuberant brothers complete the momentous win with their trademark chest bump.

"That was the peak of our career," Bob said. "It was a five-year process with ups and downs, being together with the same team (including Andy Roddick and Tampa's James Blake) the whole way through — and winning it in the U.S. was amazing."

"We'd dreamed of playing in Davis Cup since we were 10 years old," Mike added, "and every match we played felt like a Grand Slam final."

They know something about that. From 2005 to 2006, the Bryans competed in seven straight Grand Slam finals, an Open Era record. They've earned 49 ATP victories and an Olympic bronze. And though they slipped to No. 2 in the world in their final match of 2008, with Bob bothered by a lingering shoulder injury, they're looking for a return to the top when the 2009 campaign begins Jan. 19 at the Australian Open.

We just want to get better every day, because every year the game gets better," Bob said. "We want to stay healthy and do this as long as possible, because it's a great gig."

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Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic blunt twin threat to win doubles

The start of the men's doubles final usually means a stampede for the exit doors at the other grand slams.
Not at Wimbledon, where a capacity Centre Court crowd were rewarded with a masterclass from the world's leading exponents of the doubles craft.

Victory went to the defending champions, Canada's Daniel Nestor and Serbian Nenad Zimonjic, over the world's top-ranked pair, American twins Bob and Mike Bryan, but it was not until the fourth set that there was anything to separate them as they cancelled each other out with their brilliant serving.

With the three preceding sets having all gone to a tie-break and with just two break points, neither of them taken, to show for their efforts in 2¼ hour's play, a marathon five-setter looked on the cards.

But Nestor and Zimonjic finally took their chance to break at the start of the fourth set before wrapping up the match 7-6, 6-7, 7-6, 6-3.

The Bryan brothers, normally so ebullient on court, looked subdued by the quality of their opponents' play and managed just one of their trademark chest bumps in the entire match when they won a crucial point in the second-set tie-break.

The pair are keen musicians in their spare time, playing gigs on the men's tour as the 'Bryan Brothers Band', and have been joined from time to time for a bit of rapping by their pal Andy Roddick.

A bit of his on-court firepower would have come in handy yesterday as they slumped to their third Wimbledon final defeat, though they did manage to win it in 2006.

Zimonjic was the star of the show and Nestor was full of praise for what they have achieved. He said: "We've won back-to-back titles, which is incredible.

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Bob and Mike Bryan in double

Twin brothers Robert Charles Bryan (Bob) and Michael Carl Bryan (Mike) are American professional tennis players. Between 2005 and 2006, they set an Open Era record by competing in seven consecutive men's doubles Grand Slam finals, three of which they won. On February 20, 2010, they recorded their Open Era record 600th match win by defeating Taylor Dent and Ryan Harrison in the semi-finals of the Delray Beach ATP 250 tournament.

Born on April 29, 1978, with Mike being older by two minutes, and Bob taller by 3 cm, The Bryans, as they are known, have won 60 tour titles (second only to The Woodies' 61 titles). They have a career Grand Slam that includes victories at the French Open (2003), US Open (2005, 2008), Australian Open (2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010), and Wimbledon (2006). They won the Tennis Masters Cup Doubles tournament thrice (2003, 2004 and 2009), and have been finalists in 38 other occasions. They won the bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. They also won the 2007 Davis Cup along with Andy Roddick and James Blake.

The twins are part of the United States Davis Cup team, with a 16–2 record in doubles matches. Their two losses were to Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic and Mario Ancic, 3–6, 7–6, 6–4, 6–4 and in 2008, to France's Arnaud Clément and Michaël Llodra, 6-7, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4. Both brothers have played Davis Cup singles matches.

Bob and Mike won their first doubles tournament at age 6, in a 10-and-under event. They had an outstanding junior career, winning well over a hundred junior doubles titles together. They won the 1991 USTA National Boys' 14 Doubles Championships, the 1992 USTA National Boys' 14 Clay Court doubles title, the 1994 USTA National Boys' 16 Clay Court doubles title, the 1995 USTA National Boys' 18 Clay Courts doubles title, the junior doubles title at the 1995 Ojai Valley, California Tennis Tournament, and the first-ever Easter Bowl boys' 18 doubles title.

The Bryans made their professional and Grand Slam debut at the 1995 U.S. Open, where they lost in the first round to Grant Connell and Patrick Galbraith.

Their first tour win came in 1998, at the Atlanta ATP tournament, 6–3, 3–6, 6–4, over Trevor Kronemann and Dave Randall. They reached the quarter-finals and lost to Grant Stafford and Kevin Ullyett. They made the semi-final of the ATP tournament at Washington, D.C. and won two Challenger tournaments, at Aptos and Burbank.

In 1999, the twins reached their first ATP final at Orlando, falling in the finals to Jim Courier and Todd Woodbridge, 6–74, 4–6. They reached the semi-finals at Scottsdale, and the quarter-finals at Indian Wells and Key Biscayne. The brothers were successful on the Challenger Circuit, winning three tournaments (Amarillo, Birmingham, Burbank), and reaching the finals in four others.

2001 was the first real successful season for the Bryans as they captured four titles (Memphis, Queen's Club, Newport, Los Angeles) in five finals (were finalists at Washington to Martin Damm and David Prinosil).

2003 was a landmark season for the Bryans. They reached their first Grand Slam final at Roland Garros, where they also won their first Grand Slam title, beating Paul Haarhuis and Yevgeny Kafelnikov 7-6 (7-3) 6–3 in the final, and did not drop a set all through the tournament.

In 2005, the Bryans reached all four Grand Slam finals, and though they lost in the first three (Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon), they won the second Grand Slam of their career at the U.S. Open in front of cheering home fans. They also won tournaments at Scottsdale, Queen's Club and Washington ATP, and made it to the finals at Memphis, Monte Carlo TMS and Rome TMS.

In 2006, the twins won the first Grand Slam of the season, the 2006 Australian Open, where they beat Leander Paes of India and Martin Damm of the Czech Republic 4–6, 6–3, 6–4 in the final.

2007 saw the Bryans win 11 titles.

The Bryans then ended their title-drought at Masters Series since 2008 by winning the Rome Masters defeating compatriots John Isner and Sam Querrey in the final. They are currently just one title shy of The Woodies' all time record of 61 doubles titles.

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Wimbledon Men’s Doubles Tennis Players

The men’s doubles event at the All England Club has been dominated by the partnership of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, and more recently Todd Woodbridge and Jonas Bjorkman. From 1993 until Todd Woodbridge’s retirement from tennis in 2004, only three other doubles pairings have been successful at Wimbledon.

In each of the past three years, a different team has claimed the men’s doubles crown. In 2005 it was Stephen Huss and Wesley Moodie, in 2006 the fabulous Bryan brothers claimed the honours and in 2007 it was the turn of the number eight pairing on the Stanford ATP doubles ranking, Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra.
Effectively the men’s doubles event is now an entirely open event. There is no one team in dominion, so it is possible that one of the top ranking teams will be successful at the 2008 tournament.

Although the Bryan brothers are currently ranked as the number one team, they have been more successful at the other Grand Slam tournaments, the Australian Open in particular. There is no reason, however, for them not to claim their second win in London.

Known as the “dream team” the twin brothers, Bob and Mike, have been at the top of the rankings for a straight three years. They clinched the 2007 Australian Open and took three ATP Masters Series titles at Miami, Monte Carlo and Hamburg and then went on to end the season with three ATP tournament wins in Basel, Madrid and Paris. This takes the Wimbledon men’s doubles tennis players to 44 career doubles titles.

Defending champions Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra must fancy their chances of a back-to-back win at Wimbledon. Although they have won only seven matches in the four Grand Slam events of the 2007 season, they did claim the biggest prize of all, and that, of course, was the Wimbledon men’s doubles crown. Llodra has won successive Australian Open titles with his previous partner, Fabrice Santoro.

Partners, Paul Hanley and Kevin Ullyett are currently ranked number three on the Stanford ATP doubles ranking. They reached the Australian Open semi-finals and were runners-up at the Masters Series events at Hamburg and Montreal, and the end-of-year Grand Slam, the US Open.

Zimbabwean, Ullyett has won two Grand Slam titles with previous partner Wayne Black – the 2001 US Open and the 2005 Australian Open.

Swede, Simon Aspelin and partner, Austrian, Julian Knowle had a fantastic debut season. They reached the semi-finals of the Masters Series events at Monte Carlo and Hamburg and after playing only four tournaments together they claimed their first win at Poertschach. They quickly followed up the win with titles at Halle, on grass and Bastad, on clay.

At the US Open they caused a major upset by ousting the favoured Bryan brothers to claim the title, and they ended their 2007 season by reaching the quarterfinals at Madrid and the semi-finals in Paris, and ranked number two.

Any of these teams could grab the honours at Wimbledon 2008, but if experience is an important variable, then you would have to put your money on the American duo of Bob and Mike Bryan.

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Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjić in doubles

Daniel Mark Nestor born on September 4, 1972, in Belgraden tennis player from the Toronto area.

In his career so far he has won 68 men's doubles titles, including a gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics, the Tennis Masters Cup, and 5 Grand Slam men's doubles titles. In addition, Nestor won the 2007 Australian Open mixed doubles title with Elena Likhovtseva. This pairing also reached the finals of the 2006 Australian Open and the 2006 French Open. Nestor reclaimed the Men's doubles world #1 ranking, after winning doubles at Wimbledon. On July 4, 2009, Nestor and his partner, Nenad Zimonjić, repeated as doubles champions at Wimbledon. His 68 doubles titles makes him the most decorated champion active and he is the only player in tennis history to have won all the Grand Slams and Masters Series events at least once.

He won three Grand Slam doubles titles together with longterm partner Mark Knowles of the Bahamas. The tandem won the 2002 Australian Open, the 2004 U.S. Open and the 2007 French Open. He and Knowles also reached the final of the 1995 Australian Open, the 1998 French Open and U.S. Open, the 2002 French Open and Wimbledon, the 2003 Australian Open and the 2005 Wimbledon He became the number one ranked doubles player in the world in August, 2002. Nestor's career high singles ranking is World No. 58, which he reached in August, 1999. In mixed doubles, he reached the 2003 U.S. Open final and the 2006 Australian Open final, as well as winning the mixed doubles event at the 2007 Australian Open with partner Elena Likhovtseva.

Nenad Zimonjić born June 4, 1976 in Belgrade, Serbia is a professional Serbian tennis player who is currently ranked World No. 1 in men's doubles. He is the second tennis player from Serbia to hold the highest doubles ranking, after Slobodan Živojinović.

Zimonjić turned pro in 1995 and remained relatively unknown outside his native country until a surprise victory in the Mixed Doubles at the 2004 Australian Open. Paired for the first time with Russian Elena Bovina, he beat defending champions Martina Navratilova and Leander Paes in straight sets in an hour and nine minutes, 6–1, 7–6 (3). Alongside Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia, he won the 2006 French Open crown with a straight-sets victory over Daniel Nestor and Elena Likhovrtseva, 6–3, 6–4. At the 2006 Wimbledon Championships, Zimonjić reached the final of the Men's Doubles (alongside France's Fabrice Santoro) and the quarter-finals of the Mixed Doubles.

In 2007, Zimonjić reached the 2007 French Open mixed doubles final as the defending champions with Katarina Srebotnik and lost to Nathalie Dechy and Andy Ram. He left Fabrice Santoro after Wimbledon and teamed with Mahesh Bhupathi until after the 2007 U.S. Open. After the U.S. Open, Nenad left Bhupathi and partnered with Daniel Nestor who won the French Open earlier in the year alongside Mark Knowles. The team won the 2007 St. Petersburg Open without losing a set.

While Zimonjić is known as a doubles specialist, he has recorded two big wins in his singles career. In 2004 he defeated Andre Agassi 6–2 7–6 in St Pölten and in 2005 on the grass of Halle he defeated Nicolas Kiefer 6–7(1) 6–3 6–4, both of these were first round victories. At the 2008 Wimbledon tennis tournament, Zimonjić won his first Doubles Grand Slam triumph with Daniel Nestor of Canada.

In 2009, Zimonjić won the World Team Cup as a part of the Serbian team. His partner Victor Troicki and him won two decisive games against Italian and Argentinian teams; as a result, Serbia has finished first in its group and then proceeded to beat Germany in the final encounter.

In 2008 he married former model Mina Knežević. On December 4, 2008, his wife gave birth to twins, Leon and Luna.

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Zimonjic makes light of wrist woe

Nenad Zimonjic overcame a broken bone in his wrist to partner Daniel Nestor to victory in the men's doubles final. The big-serving Serb, who injured himself after clattering into a line-judge in the semi-final against Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy, was undoubtedly the player of the match as the No. 2 seeds beat veterans Jonas Bjorkman and Kevin Ullyett 7-6 (14-12), 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 6-3 in 2 hours and 39 minutes.

The Wimbledon title, the first for both players, hands Yugoslavian-born Canadian Nestor a place in history as the eighth man in the Open era to win a career Grand Slam of doubles - the others being Bjorkman, Bob and Mike Bryan, Mark Woodforde, Todd Woodbridge, Paul Haarhuis and Jacco Eltingh..

The Canadian won the Australian Open in 2002, Roland Garros in 2007 and the US Open in 2004, all with former long-time partner Mark Knowles. It also tops a great year for the partnership, who reformed as a pair in October 2007 after a six-year hiatus. They have been on a roll in recent months winning 21 of 23 matches, including the Wimbledon warm-up title at Queen's and reaching the final at Roland Garros.

The pair were deserving champions, producing an almost faultless display of serving with 19 aces in total and just one double fault and superb reaction skills on blustery conditions on Centre Court.

The first two sets could have gone either way. There were no breaks of serve and it came down to two tight tie-breaks and a test of nerves. The first went to the Serb/Canadian partnership, after the longest tie-break in Wimbledon men's doubles history, 14-12 when Bjorkman netted a forehand volley after a frantic rally.

Zimonjic, 32, and Nestor, 35, slapped hands in delight, but their one-set advantage was soon cancelled out after Bjorkman and Ullyett, in their swansong at Wimbledon, took the second set tie-break in much easier fashion, 7-3 after the Swede punched a volley winner home.

With so few points separating the pairs it seemed impossible to pick a winner as the match went into a third set. However after fifteen consecutive games had gone with serve, Zimonjic fizzed a forehand return to bring up a break point for the No.2 pairing.

They quickly seized the opportunity and moved 3-1 ahead after the Swede pushed a volley long. Bjorkman and Ullyett, who joined forces this year, had a chance to break Nestor back as he served for the set at 5-3, however the Canadian wiped out the opportunity with a fantastic serve out wide and held his nerve to seal the set.

The No.2 seeds then went on to carve out a 3-2 lead in the fourth set after breaking the Ullyett serve when a volley error by his 36-year-old Swedish partner was followed by a brilliant forehand into the tramlines by Nestor.

"We focused really hard. It's one of those matches where you don't want to give an inch. Every game and point is tough. You feel like you have to focus really hard because you're playing against one of the best competitors over the years, singles and doubles, Bjorkman. Ullyett is playing great doubles, too. They beat the Bryans and they're confident."

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