Mike Bryan and Bob Bryan, the most successful doubles team in tennis history, have announced their retirement at the age of 42. The Bryan Brothers won a record 16 Grand Slam doubles titles over a career spanning 22 years.
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The duo, absent from the US Open 2020 entry list, first reported about their decision to Christopher Carey of the New York Times. The power duo have announced their retirement from the sport, effective immediately.
“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,” said Mike Bryan about the reason behind their retirement.
The Bryan Brothers won a record 119 titles playing together and they also have over 1,100 tour wins. They dominated the tennis tour and finished 10 seasons as the world’s top-ranked doubles team. The American duo was ranked World No.1 for a record 438 weeks and they will go down in tennis history as the most accomplished doubles team so far.
“We were pretty much unstoppable for those years,” Bob said on a Zoom call. “We were down a break of serve and smiling, and not one bit of negativity drifted into our game.”
The legendary doubles team played their last tournament at the Delray Beach Open in 2019, which they successfully defended.
Bryan Brothers had a goal of reaching World No.1 at the age 8
Bob Bryan posted an emotional post on Instagram reflecting on the remarkable journey.
Born to tennis teaching parents, Wayne and Kathy, the identical twins won their first title together at six. Bob and Mike Bryan had a goal of reaching World No.1 in doubles at the age of eight, which they posted on their refrigerator.
Wayne Bryan, the duo’s father remarked that the twins were born to play tennis and never wanted to compete against each other. The Bryan Brothers won an astonishing six Australian Open titles, two French Open titles, three Wimbledon titles, and five US Open titles. The duo also created history after completing a Career Golden Masters in 2014 after winning the Shangai Masters.
