Productive tennis doubles partners Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan are retiring from the sport in front of the US Open, they disclosed to The New York Times on Wednesday.
The decision shuts an expert tennis partnership that incorporates a men’s doubles record of 16 Grand Slam championships.
“We just both feel it in our guts that it is the right moment,” Mike Bryan told the Times. “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 twin siblings, both 42, had previously intended to retire after the 2020 US Open. Yet, the decision to hold the Grand Slam without fans in participation due to the coronavirus pandemic prompted their decision to withdraw before the event. The Bryans won five championships as a matching in New York, most recently in 2014.
“We weren’t in this last year to just play the matches and to get points or to make money,” Bob Bryan told the newspaper. “It was to really say our thank-yous to everybody and feel the atmosphere one last time. The crowds — that’s what make the US Open magical in our minds. We really applaud the US 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 have won 119 titles in from the beginning with the 2007 Davis Cup and the 2012 London Olympics doubles gold medal for the United States. They likewise have 10 year-end completes as the No. 1 doubles team in the rankings. En route, they became as popular a doubles team as there might have been, known for jumping to knock chests toward the finish of triumphs.
“We were pretty much unstoppable for those years,” Bob Bryan told the Times. “We were down a break of serve and smiling, and not one bit of negativity drifted into our game.”
Bob Bryan went through hip surgery in 2018. While he was off the tour, Mike won two extra Grand Slam titles with Jack Sock as his partner.
Bob and Mike Bryan arrived at the third round of the men’s doubles at the Australian Open, the only Grand Slam event that has been played in 2020 in view of the pandemic.
The siblings are the best doubles team in Davis Cup history, winning 25 matches across 15 years.
In March, not long before tennis shut down on account of the pandemic, the Bryans secured a Davis Cup best-of-five series by giving the U.S. a 3-0 lead against Uzbekistan in Hawaii.
Under new guidelines established in 2018, the twins are the first ATP players whose certifications qualify them for programmed posting on the ballot for the International Tennis Hall of Fame, bypassing the standard nomination process.
They will be qualified for the class of 2025.
