Mylan WTT 40: Q&A with Bob and Mike Bryan

From going down to the Forum to see Jimmy Connors and the LA Strings play when they were kids, to now being on the other side inspiring junior tennis players, Bob and Mike Bryan have come full circle with Mylan World TeamTennis.

On Thursday, the two began their 13th season in the League, making their debut for the California Dream. It could not have been more dramatic, but in true Bryan Brothers fashion, the two stepped up to win the final set 5-1, propelling the Dream to a 20-19 victory over the San Diego Aviators.

Tennis.com sat down with the Bryans ahead of Sunday’s match between the Dream and Philadelphia Freedoms, which airs live on ESPN3 at 8pm ET.

How did it feel to deliver the goods in front of a home crowd?
Bob: That’s obviously a very big tennis town; it was always a successful venue for the Capitals. They always got great support and that hasn’t changed now that the Dream is there. It was different going in and being the home team for once. We are used to going in and battling my dad over the last ten or fifteen years in that stadium and it was nice to have them on our side because they do have very vocal fans. We were very excited to get that win as it was not looking good going into the last match. I’d thought we’d played some really good ball to carry the team over the line.

**During that set, Mike had a Sportscenter ‘Not Top 10’ nominee moment when he lost his racket. What happened, Mike?

Mike:** It’s the first time it’s ever happened in my career. I threw my racket on a roof; luckily there was a great athlete that was right in the front row that could get it down but I thought it was staying up there forever. And I didn’t have any other rackets in my bag so I needed that racket to come down. I just have to watch my sportsmanship a little bit (laughter). I’ll work on that but it was funny. I saw in the replay that it flew pretty high. The wind caught it.

You’re playing in three cities over a four-day swing. At this stage in your career, what does it mean to play a starring role in bringing professional tennis to areas like Boston and Philadelphia?
Bob: That’s what makes WTT so fun. You get to show tennis fans and small markets that don’t get to see professional leagues, show them pro tennis for a night. And in WTT, the fans are close to the court, you get to talk to them, sign autographs after. So it’s great to visit places that don’t get exposed to tennis and get them excited about it. In Sacramento, we had a line around the parking lot for autographs, so it was really cool. Hopefully we’ll leave an impact on a lot of those kids and get them excited to pick up a racket.

Over your 13 seasons, you’ve played for numerous Mylan WTT franchises. How are you finding your newest group of teammates?
Mike: We are very close with this team. Tennys Sandgren has been on the Davis Cup team and we really like him, he’s a great dude. We are getting to know Neal Skupski pretty well. He is an up and coming rising doubles player and he has a brother that he plays with. It has been cool to hang with him and I love this team. It’s comfortable having Macca as the captain of the team, too. We are used to seeing him in the crowd since he cannot coach during the matches. In this format, he is more valuable because he can say stuff to us in between points.  He knows our game better than anyone so it’s great.

In addition to your match in Philadelphia tonight, you two will also join a local band for a pre-match gig. Is there anything in particular you do to prepare for a different type of performance like this, whether it is a song you lead off with or a superstition during rehearsal?
Bob: We do have our songs that we are comfortable with. We will obviously give them a few songs that we know and hope that we can mash our set list. Music has always been a great escape for us… we can lose ourselves. A lot of times you think you’re jamming for 15 minutes and four or five hours have gone away. It is good fun for us and we will be doing that for the rest of our lives. It’s a great balance to have, so hopefully we’ll get our kids involved.

Speaking of kids, how is the brother-sister combo doing?
Bob: I’ve taken Micaela to a few tennis lessons with big groups and she usually ends up sitting and drawing pictures in the clay. Bobby Jr. has taken to it a little more. We can’t get the racket out of his hand. He carries the racket around the house all day. He isn’t hitting balls yet but he swings it making sounds. He could be the next Bryan. He is going to be a big kid.

Mike: He already weighs more than Micaela and he’s only one and she’s three and a half. He’s going to be a beast.

Bob: We’ve got a boy coming in October so there will be another Bryan.

That will nearly complete a roster for a WTT team. What would you call your franchise, hypothetically?
Bob: Bryan Bangers

Up in Boston, you hosted a clinic with tennis players of all ages. If you had an hour to teach the Bryan Bros chest bump, what advice would you give to a group of amateurs?
Mike: Bob tried to do a chest bump with Medina Garrigues.
Bob: No, no. She tried to do a chest bump with me. I didn’t know it was coming!
Mike: You’ve got to have good communication and know it is coming. That’s why you don’t see a lot of chest bumps anymore.
Bob: We used to get hurt early in our career. You need good spacing and good lift off at the same time,
Mike: You want to pick someone that’s similar in size to you, so that you can connect instead of catching a knee.
Bob: Keep your arms out of it.
Mike: Keep your arms back sometimes people go in for a little bit of a hug and it throws it all off with a flying elbow and just knock someone’s lights out. Luckily we’ve done so many where I can see the twinkle in Bob’s eye and we know it’s going to be a good one.