Whipped Cream, Cherries, and Nuts

NEW YORK—Bob Bryan felt like he was driving along the highway that is his own life, or at least the life he has shared for 36 years with his twin brother Mike. The images flew past like features of the landscape, a pleasant enough feeling but for one detail: Bob Bryan was playing in the doubles final of the U.S. Open, trying with Mike to win a landmark 100th career doubles title.

“I was having flashbacks to my whole career towards the end of that match. It was wild,” Bob Bryan said, after he and Mike won the title over Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez, 6-3, 6-4. “I was thinking juniors, hitting our first balls at the club. Playing our first tournament at age six. Saw that. Yeah, I mean, Kalamazoo when we were—it’s all relative. We were just as jacked to win Kalamazoo as we are here to get 100. Same thing with the NCAAs. I slept with that NCAA trophy in my bed for a night.”

All those memories were rushing past as Bob fought to “stay in the moment.” He found it was impossible. In a career distinguished by epic accomplishments, he and Mike now stood on the brink of 100 tournament wins. Also, 10 straight years with at least one Grand Slam title. And a fifth U.S. Open title. “There are no words to describe those feelings,” he concluded.

Perhaps he was right, but Mike was also entitled to take a stab at it. He said, “It's always sweet winning a Grand Slam. This just adds some extra whip cream and cherries and nuts on top.”

It’s hard to grasp just how good the Bryans are at doubles, despite the proliferation of doubles specialists on the tour. But a look at the tale-of-the-tape for the final gives you a pretty good idea. Bob and Mike are 36; their opponents, doubles specialist Lopez and versatile Marcel Granollers, are 32 and 28 respectively. And they came into this match having beaten the Bryans in the quarterfinals of this years French Open, 6-4, 6-2.

However—the Bryans had won 15 Grand Slam titles (like their title haul of 100, it was the record), while the Spanish team had yet to win a major. The Bryans were 99-51 in career finals coming into this match; Granollers and Lopez were 4-8. The Bryans have won more titles in each year of the past decade (including 2014) than their opponents have collected in total through a partnership that began in 2006.

Sure, the Bryans focus exclusively on doubles, while Granollers is a singles player as well (he’s currently No. 42 in the rankings). And the Spaniards frequently have to change partners, depending on each man’s schedule. But the Bryans’ record isn’t diminished by that. The most impressive detail on their resume may be that many of the Bryans’ records are not the typical “Open era” records—they are all-time, no questions asked, best-ever marks. Most doubles titles, period. Most Grand Slam titles, period.

“It just seems like we have hit every milestone and step along the way,” Mike said, when he was asked if he thought the Bryans have good karma. “It does feel like we have good karma. We pick up trash when we see litter on the street . . .”

“Try to sign every autograph,”  Bob chimed in, “Take pictures, those selfies. Your hoping that it’s gonna add up to something.”

Picking up trash and posing with their arms around strangers wanting selfies is the least of it, though. Watching the match, I noticed two men sitting in a box a few rows behind the umpire. They were clearly and vocally encouraging the Bryans, and I soon realized they too were twins. They moved down to the court when the final ball was hit, and the brothers embraced each of them as they stood waiting for the trophy presentation. I learned later that they were Ryan and Sean Wolfington, who sponsor and mentor 70 kids with help from The Bryan Brothers Foundation. In truth, the Bryans have given back to the game freely and continually.

“Our dad instilled that in us, doing so many clinics, inspirational speeches, and we were always traveling around with him as kind of the show ponies,” Bob said. “You know, the Jensens were one of our big idols and they gave back more than anyone, and signed every autograph. And then (Andre) Agassi set a great example. As we get older, we're really trying harder to raise more money and do good in this game. You know, you mature and you start to see the good you can do and the impact you can make on the youth.”

I’m not sure how much karma had to do with the Bryans win today, but I feel comfortable saying that unrelenting hard work and fidelity to a vision of the game also played a major role. Their professionalism was obvious at every level, beginning with their kit. Granollers wore a solid forest green shirt, Lopez chose a horizontally striped green and turquoise number; their tennis shoes were of clashing, fluorescent hues. The Bryans were almost identically dressed down to their blaze orange shoelaces, the only difference being a narrow black stripe down the back of Bob’s white socks.

This attention to detail was telling, for it reflected the coordination of their talents and skills, and thus helps explain the astonishing record they’ve amassed. These guys are like stones that have been shaped over a few thousand years by a steady rivulet of water, or like juniper trees sculpted into a fantastic configuration by unrelenting wind. The effect is particularly striking in left-handed Bob’s game. He has more kinds of volleys than Baskin-Robbins has flavors of ice cream. And he’s perfected the art of the no-swing backhand, the sheer pace and aggression of today’s doubles game having rendered the backswing a luxury few can afford.

From the onset of the match, it was clear that the weak link was Lopez. He’s certainly a game and crafty little player, but the operative word is “little.” A 5’9” right-hander, Lopez hit an ace and a few unreturned serves today. The bad news is that even that ace traveled at all of 103 M.P.H. Time and again, the Bryans feasted on Lopez’s serve. In his four service games, Lopez was broken twice, and he had to escape break points in another.

While the match wasn’t particularly close, it was great fun to watch. (Isn’t that always true of doubles?) Take the fifth game of the second set, with Granollers serving at 2-2. At 30-0, he hit a good serve that Bob returned cross-court. On the move, Lopez cupped the ball on the face of his racquet so gently that the ball jumped off the strings, sat down on the netcord for a moment’s rest, then plopped over to the Bryans' side.

The leisurely journey gave Bob sufficient time to dig the ball out and send it spinning deep and wide cross-court. Making a mad dash, Granollers was able to make a desperate squash shot with his back to the net. The ball never traveled more than 18 inches above the ground, and it passed between the net post and the umpire’s chair and skipped past Mike in the doubles alley. It was a remarkable shot, but all in a day’s work in today’s explosive doubles game.

By that time, with a 6-3 set in the bag, Bob’s imagination—and heartbeat—were running wild. Securing a break of Lopez for 4-3 proved a sedative, and the Bryans were careful not to get either too passive or too aggressive in the ensuing games. They did what they do best, leavening their power-based game with an effective and pleasing amount of touch and deception—a dose of the Spanish team’s own medicine. “They play like no other team out there,” Mike said. “They are so close to the net.They have great groundstrokes. We had some good strategies to counteract that.”

When Bob served for the match, he build a 40-0 lead. One point later, Mike cut off Granollers' return to convert match point. He spun around, crouched, and Bob knew what was coming next. As Mike launched into a standard Bryan brothers chest-bump, Bob just stood there, rooted. Instead of performing their trademark celebration, Bob caught Mike like Mikhail Baryshnikov catching a ballerina and held him there for a moment.

“He felt light as a feather,” Bob said. “I could have held him there all day.”

“It was a miscommunicated chest bump,” Mike explained. “I went for it. Bob didn't lift off.”

It was the only act of miscommunication the Bryans committed on the day they completed one of the most impressive feats in the annals of tennis.