Ali Ansari, who played on Stanford’s 1998 NCAA title-winning team with the Bryan brothers, tells the Houston Chronicle that Bob and Mike could have had productive singles careers. Both brothers decided to emphasize doubles when they arrived on the ATP tour, although they did play a little bit of singles for the first four years of their careers.
"There's no doubt in my mind they could have had great singles careers, at least cracking the Top 20," Ansari said. "Remember, [Bob] was also the NCAA singles champion. He won the Triple Crown in 1998—team, singles and doubles. There's only a handful of players who have ever pulled that off. It was a tough decision for them to focus on doubles, but they made a strong commitment to each other."—Matthew Cronin