PARIS (AP)—The Bryan twins will have to wait to break the record for most men’s doubles titles in the Open era.
Top-seeded Americans Bob and Mike Bryan lost 6-3, 7-6 (6) to unseeded Brazilians Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares in the second round of the French Open on Saturday, delaying the brothers’ bid for their 62nd career title together.
“It just comes down a little bit to the mental stuff, sometimes. Maybe we’re a little tired mentally,” Bob said.
He added that they’re considering skipping the Queen’s Club grass-court tournament in England next month to rest before the start of Wimbledon.
“We need a little break. We’ve played a lot. It’d be nice to maybe get a week off. … We might catch a flight tomorrow morning and go back to Florida, and get some time,” Bob said.
The Bryans, of Wesley Chapel, Fla., won their eighth Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January. They tied the Open era mark of 61 men’s doubles titles—originally set by the retired Australian pair of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde—by winning at Madrid two weeks ago.
“There’s been a lot of talk about the record,” Bob said. “It’s nice to have. I feel like the monkey’s off our back. We just have a piece of the record. We’re proud of that. … There’s no urgency to break it.”
They had not lost this early at Roland Garros since a second-round loss back in 2001. They won the championship in 2003, and they reached the 2005 and 2006 finals.
But the Brazilians broke Mike’s serve in the match’s fourth game—and that was the only break by either team all match. Indeed, neither Melo nor Soares ever even faced a break point.
Still, the Americans had a chance to get back into the match when they took a 5-2 lead in the tiebreaker, then held two set points at 6-4. But the Brazilians erased those chances, then converted their first match point when Mike hit a return long.
“We’ve never come into a Slam on such a good run,” Mike said. “Maybe we were a little bit too confident and didn’t come with high energy and desperation like we usually do in a Slam. And we got caught off-guard. A lot of stuff went wrong out there.”
Melo and Soares have never been past the semifinals at a Grand Slam tournament—and each made it that far with a different partner. They’ve only been playing together since the start of this year.
“We knew we had to serve well and return and make them work on their serves,” Soares said. “Because sometimes they just start serving a lot of first serves and winning their games very easily, and putting a lot of pressure on our serves. So we managed to serve well and keep the pressure on them when they were serving.”