Identical twins Bob and Mike Bryan, the most successful pair in the history of men’s doubles tennis, announced retirement just days ahead of the US Open.
The Bryans, 42, won an Open era record 119 titles together, including 16 Grand Slams, 39 ATP Masters 1000s and the ATP Finals title four times. The Californian pair also won the Olympic gold at London in 2012.
"We just both feel it in our guts that it is the right moment," Mike told the New York Times, bringing the curtains down on a 22-year-professional careers. "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. We want to go out right now where we still have some good tennis left," he told the New York Times.
"We are most proud of the way we devoted ourselves completely to the game and gave our full effort every day," ATPtour.com quoted Bob Bryan as saying of their decision to retire. "Our loyalty toward each other never wavered and we are leaving professional tennis with zero regrets. We will miss the competition and camaraderie amongst the players. We will also miss the excitement of gearing up for a big match and playing for the roar of the fans."
The Bryan brothers were the top-ranked doubles team in the world for 438 weeks, and were part of the US Davis Cup-winning team in 2007.
After Bob underwent a hip surgery in August 2018, Mike teamed up with Jack Sock in 2018 and won two Grand Slam titles. The brothers were reunited at the start of the 2019 season and went on to win the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati in August 2019, and lifted the Delray Beach Open title in February 2020, which turned out to be their last tournament as the season was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
