Mike Bryan: 'You’ve got to be crazy to be around someone like this for this long'

American brothers Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan spoke about the success of their record-breaking doubles partnership in the most recent episode of Tennis United.

The Bryan Brothers on their long-standing partnership

The Bryan Brothers have won 119 titles together, incuding a record 16 Grand Slam doubles titles. Speaking to Tennis United, Mike Bryan commented, "You’ve got to be crazy to be around someone like this for this long. You have to be able to be around them all day with the practice, eating lunch. You’re a package deal. It is like a marriage and then you’re going through ups and downs weekly. When stress gets involved, things could be said and if you lose matches you never want to look in the mirror and say, ‘I could have done this.’ We never had that vibe.”

Bob Bryan echoed the same sentiment. "This doesn’t last unless we have the same DNA, the same blood. Our teeth are the same, we’ve got our braces on and off the same day. His retainer fit my mouth, it was just weird. We’ve been connected at the hip since birth. I think twins are weird. It’s not normal to be this close to someone that’s not your spouse. It’s an unbreakable bond. It had to be a twin relationship for this to last this many years. You play doubles with a guy for a couple years and he starts to get on your nerves and you’re looking for someone new."

The Bryan Brothers are the most successful duo of all time and have won more professional games, matches, tournaments and Grand Slams than any other men's pairing. They held the World No. 1 doubles ranking jointly for 438 weeks, which is longer than anyone else in doubles history and have finished as the ATP year-end number 1 doubles team a record 10 times. They won the gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and the bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and were part of the 2007 Davis Cup winning team as well. The brothers had earlier stated that they would retire from tennis after the 2020 US Open, although they have now said that they may reconsider their retirement plans due to the global pandemic.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2WXFDHU