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BARCLAYS ATP WORLD TOUR FINALSNovember 16, 2014Mike BryanBob BryanLONDON, ENGLAND BRYAN‑BRYAN/Dodig‑Melo THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Another successful season for you guys. I read the interview that you did recently. I don't remember which said what, but you said in 10 years you hope the game is still healthy, and the other said you hope there are doubles in 20 years. Where do you see the health of the game? BOB BRYAN: I feel the doubles game is pretty healthy right now. We put out a good product this week. I though it really added to the event. Especially with the quick singles matches, doubles brought a lot of value. But doubles has to be cared for and promoted. The trend is for no prize money increases on the doubles side. Doubles kind of gets swept under the rug. There does have to be someone looking after it. Maybe that will be our job when I retire. But I think the ATP could use a doubles commissioner. I think we had that about 10 years ago. That would help. Just have the bill of rights, the doubles bill of rights. Put the doubles draws visible on‑site at tournaments, put the doubles players in the programs. Little things like that make a big difference. Q. This title is really important for you, but the US Open, 100, do you choose or is it the whole year? MIKE BRYAN: Looking back at the year, we're very proud of the way it went. If we had to pick one highlight during this great season, it would probably have to be the US Open. It was just a milestone we were shooting for. One of our big goals coming in the year is to try to hit 100 titles. We did it luckily at our home Grand Slam when there was a lot of talk about it. We're happy we did it there. To finish year end No.1, was a huge goal, we did that for the 10th season. That ranks right up there. This is considered the fifth slam, with the top eight teams in the world. To lose our first match and bounce back, barely qualify for the semifinals, win today, was a great feeling. Q. Was there active chatter among the doubles players that you were putting out a better product than the singles guys this year? Is that something someone will take to the ATP or to your board representative and say, Look at the product here? Secondly, the ATP created these advisory boards. One is a legends, one is business people. What kind of changes would you like to see in the game if some were implemented? BOB BRYAN: Those are essay questions (smiling). MIKE BRYAN: Good luck. BOB BRYAN: First of all, the doubles guys, we're very proud of the close matches, the entertainment value that we're giving the fans. Matches are going an hour and a half. We're filling the time slots. Yeah, we did have a sense of pride that the points were entertaining and fans enjoyed it. We don't like to go out there in a big house and just have bad tennis and quick matches. From that standpoint, all the guys were very proud. It was a huge stage for the doubles guys. A lot of guys have never played in front of this many people. Everyone left here with a good feeling this year, win or lose. As far as the advisory boards that were just set up, I don't know too much about it as far as changes to be made on the tour. I think we're going in the right direction. I don't have anything on the top of my head that I could see being changed. We'll talk about that later. Q. (No microphone.) BOB BRYAN: Look, the warmup has already been cut down a couple minutes in the last couple years. I like the no‑let rule. We do that in college, World TeamTennis. Seems to add some entertainment. Bring a little more luck into it. Q. Especially seeing that you hadn't had the success here in the last five years, you lost the first round robin, down a set and a break, do you feel you played more loose, let things go in the second set? What was the mindset there? MIKE BRYAN: Yeah, I mean, you're right, we haven't played our best tennis to finish the year. We did in '09 when the No.1 ranking was on the line. Sometimes we've come in here feeling like we're resting on our laurels a little bit, happy with the way the season has gone, haven't put a ton of focus on winning this. This year I thought we did. We did play a little looser. We freed up our games a little bit and did go for our shots, especially in that third set breaker. We let it fly. Bob finished the match with a 132 serve, 131. He wasn't playing that serve safe. I'm happy the way we hung tough. In our second round robin match, we were down 4‑0 in the third‑set breaker. Could have easily been knocked out there. You need a little bit of luck. It went our way this week. What can I say? It feels really satisfying to end the year on a high. Q. Trying very hard to phrase this question so it doesn't sound rude. On a day when a 33‑year‑old's back has seized up after a long singles match, do you find yourselves conscious of your age? How long do you believe you can say stay at the top, especially when Bob hits Mike on the back of the head with a serve? BOB BRYAN: That was going to be an ace, by the way. Five seconds after I hit him, I told him, You just blocked my ace, thanks a lot. Look, we are conscious of our age. We've been playing on hard courts since we've been three years old. We feel the joints. We don't bounce back as quick. We get massages now. I never got massages in my 20s. I'm gluten free now. I never thought I would be. He's been gluten free for 10 years. I had to resort to that because I was feeling the inflammation. We're professional. We get the right sleep, eat the right foods, stay hydrated. We take a little Aleve before the match, that one Aleve seems to do the trick. MIKE BRYAN: Going to turn into two Aleve next year (smiling). Q. Mike, can you talk a little bit more about the mental training that you've been doing over the past kind of year or so. Have you been doing it this week? MIKE BRYAN: The mental training? Q. Yes, with SenseLabs? MIKE BRYAN: It's a revolutionary product. It kind of just focuses your brain to recreate the zone, which is kind of a relaxed concentration. I've been experimenting with their new headset, which is pretty good. You only need to do about 60 minutes a week. You can click into a zone. It gives you a little bit better sleep. We can talk a little bit more about it after. I'm a little embarrassed to talk about it here because Bob is going to make fun of me. BOB BRYAN: What are you doing (laughter)? Q. I wanted to ask you about a couple of key points and key strokes, which one of you does them better. Less important stroke, but who has a better tweener lob? BOB BRYAN: I do. MIKE BRYAN: You're the only one that goes for it. Bob learned that from Mansour Bahrami. BOB BRYAN: The drive tweener doesn't work in doubles. Guys are on top of the net. The tweener is the more successful option, I think. Q. The second one is the smash. BOB BRYAN: I actually tripped. If you watch the tape, I stepped on my feet. I didn't get all the way up. Put it in the net. I read it well, but my feet were a little sloppy. MIKE BRYAN: I usually take them. If it's right down the middle, he'll leave it to me. BOB BRYAN: The bounce smash, he likes it. Not that he hits it a lot better. Sometimes you got to have a guy that takes the middle bounce smash. He's been taking it for a while. The overhead, you just try to make a quick call, call your brother off of it. It's like catching a ball in baseball, you have to make a quick call. Q. Obviously you achieved so much in your careers, but after that 100 at the US Open, was there a surprise person that reached out to you, something that happened? I know you heard from a lot of different people throughout your careers, but one that kind of took your breath away in a sense? BOB BRYAN: Jack Nicklaus and his wife have been really great. He gets a group of guys every weekend together, and they play doubles. He has three grass courts at his house. I guess every time we're on the Tennis Channel, they postpone their tennis to watch a Bryan brothers match. He was the first guy to text us after the match. That's always a thrill when a legend of golf does that. Q. You obviously have not only a good relationship, but a blood tie to keep you together. When you look at a pair like Nestor and Zimonjic, who managed to be No. 2, but maybe not challenge you as much this year, do you feel extra grateful for the fact that you have that bond to keep you together separate from all the other guys? MIKE BRYAN: Yeah, I mean, I think that's what's kept us together for so many years, is the blood. We're not going to give up on each other. We're brutally honest. I mean, he hit me with a serve in the back of the head, then said it was my fault out there (smiling). When we lose matches, we really hash it out. We just clear the air. We can bounce back from it. He gets really personal. When he attacks me, it hurts. He says some nasty things. Whatever my insecurities are, he goes right for those. But somehow we rebound from these things. We let all the resentment go. I think we kind of have like a prenup like. It's like we're always going to stick together. We're not going to go looking for a better partner. The grass is never greener, which sometimes you see with these other guys, they're always searching for the next best thing. I think I'm stuck with this guy. BOB BRYAN: Yeah, I think it's tough to stay with the same partner. These guys struggle having breakfast every day with the same guy, the workouts, the wins and the losses, the stress. It's a lot tougher than a marriage, and you see that. Guys can't handle it. I think the twin bond is maybe unbreakable in that sense. Q. You have the bond and great instincts, but you strategize also. Now that the match is over, can you talk about things you were preparing for, what your tactics were, and anything they did that surprised you? BOB BRYAN: We think about it a little bit I know individually, you know, the night before. It's always on our mind, stuff we need to do and improve from the last match. A lot of stuff we leave to our coach. He's in his room. He watches three DVDs of the last three matches, charts out all the tendencies, tries to dumb it down for us right before practice so we're not too cluttered, and then he does it again right before the match. We go out there. We know everything we're going to do on my service game to each deuce and ad, his service game and both return games. There's really four games we focus on and break it down to different shots, different guys to pick on, their tendencies, our tendencies, like that. Q. We hear from the singles players a lot that hard courts are harder on the body, on the knees, et cetera. Do you feel that way? You had great success this year on clay, not necessarily an American stronghold. Throughout your career, have you felt that the hard courts are tough on your bodies? MIKE BRYAN: Yeah, definitely. I think you do feel the joints a little bit more on the hard courts. Our bodies feel great on the dirt. Sometimes we're out there practicing three, four hours. I don't know, it's softer. You can slide to the ball. Doubles in general can be sometimes a little tougher on the body. You're always down in the crouch position, you have to be more fast twitch coming out of that position. When I talk to these guys that play a lot of singles, they jump to doubles, they say, Damn, I'm sore in the hip flexors and glutes. That's from staying low. Grass can be the toughest for me on the body. You have to burn your legs and get really down. Clay is the easiest, then I would say hard in the middle. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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