US powered by twin engines
UNCASVILLE, Conn. -- She wanted a girl. Instead Kathy Bryan got twin boys. This was good fortune for the US Davis Cup cause, and, yesterday, hard luck for a country called Austria.
"My mom learned the week before we were born that it would be two boys," says one of them, Mike Bryan. "She cried for a couple of days. I don't think they wanted any kids, but they got used to us."
So did US captain Patrick McEnroe, but not many foes have. The latest victims of the identically imposing Bryans -- Mike and Bob -- were lefties who could do hardly anything right in the face of the brotherly onslaught. In 86 minutes Jurgen Melzer and Julian Knowle were dismantled, 6-2, 6-1, 6-4, and Austria was no longer a viable force in the Cup first round at the Mohegan Sun Casino.
By winning the doubles, the 25-year-old Bryans, out of Camarillo, Calif., and Stanford University, sent the US ahead, 3-0, the clincher in the five-match series.
The Yanks came to the casino and hit the jackpot, winning a quarterfinal date Easter weekend with Sweden, which ousted defending champion Australia early today. Also among the minority carting a profit away from the gambling emporium was the US Tennis Association, picking up a $112,000 site fee. Despite the US triumph, the series continues today with two singles, an archaic custom. Silly, obviously, but nobody likes to make ticket refunds.
"They were just too good," says Melzer, a capsule summary, to the point. "The way the brothers played, that's the way the No. 1 team in the world plays, and there was no chance for us."
Melzer and Knowle felt as overshadowed as the six loyal Austrian fans behind their bench, who were massively out-noised by the other 5,321 witnesses in an American mood.
Like Siamese twins the Bryans were. There was no "Brother, where art thou?" plea. Mike and lefthander Bob are connected in mind and (almost) body. Where one brother isn't, the other one is. They vacate and fill beautifully. With Bob stationed in the right court, they plug the middle with two forehands. At 6 feet 5 inches they have the reach to protect the alleys as well, and discourage lobbing. Their serves are whiz-bang, but after 77 minutes Mike was broken to 4-4 in the third.
"I missed a forehand volley. I do that about once a year," laughs Mike. It was on the second of the two break points the Austrians were permitted to look at. Apparently so astounded were Melzer and Knowle to make that dent in the Americans that they promptly lost serve in 4 points, Knowle double-faulting twice.
Thus it ended as begun on Bob's booming serve, a winner through Melzer. He opened the match with the first of his five aces, and later zoomed one at 139 miles per hour. "I was blowing my own mind -- 139, whoa, that's my fastest," he exulted. "Yeah, I keep an eye on that speed gun."
Certainly the Bryans have been a blessed event for McEnroe, practically a guaranteed point in a vital endeavor that has been a shambles after the most recent US Cup, 1995. Then, Pete Sampras and Todd Martin beat Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Andrei Olhovskiy for the go-ahead point in a 3-2 victory. Since, American doubles teams were 7-13 until the Bryans came aboard with a straight-set win over Slovaks Dominic Hrbaty last September in the relegation series at Bratislava. That was important in keeping the US in the World Group.
High-spirited and "excited" to be in the US mix, the Bryans have had their brown eyes on the job since they were 6 and winning the first tournament they entered, a 10-and-under event at Westlake, Calif.
"We've been together 24/7 all our lives. We can basically read each other's mind," says Mike. Doubles is communication, and after thousands of matches together we communicate better than most teams. We are never going to give up on each other. He's not going to dump me, and I'm not going to dump him. Sometimes we go back to the room and box it out, too. That spices it up a little bit."
Bob says, "This feels great to have a day dedicated to you and doubles. Doubles doesn't get the spotlight. We're on TV maybe five times a year, and ESPN is a huge stage. We want to get out there and show some excitement."
No problem there. Their enthusiasm was as potent as their overhead smashes that send balls flying over the losers' rackets into the audience. A stock Bryan play was a low service return setting up bro for a pickoff volley.
Copied from the raucous Jensen brothers, Luke and Murphy, was the leaping chest bump to punctuate match point. The collision is potentially dangerous. "Sometimes we feel bruised in the sternum or ribs," Mike says. But it's their signature symbol of victory, and yesterday, as the clincher, it set off a loud flag-flapping celebration within the arena.
Singles winners of Friday, Robbie Ginepri and Andy Roddick, took victory laps with the brothers, waving the stars and stripes. McEnroe, a first-round loser to Switzerland in 2001 and Croatia last year because of doubles failures, beamed as though he would adopt Bob and Mike in case their mother wanted to leave them on a doorstep.
But no. Kathy Bryan, nationally ranked in singles in her day, no longer weeps at the thought of twins. She and husband Wayne, who raised, fed, and clothed them, and put tennis rackets in their hands, are at least as pleased as McEnroe at the outcome.
