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BARCLAYS ATP WORLD TOUR FINALSNovember 21, 2015Bob BryanMike BryanLondon, England, United Kingdom THE MODERATOR: We have Bob and Mike Bryan. If you want to say something about the Fans Favorite award and Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award. BOB BRYAN: The Fan Favorite award is a trophy that we always treasure. It is really important to us to have the fans vote and their support. We're always trying to give back, sign the extra autograph, put on a good show for the people around the world. It's nice that they recognize that. You know, we love what we do. We wouldn't have our jobs without these fans. We're very appreciative and very grateful for everything. MIKE BRYAN: And the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award is an honor. That came out of the blue, kind of a surprise. Didn't know we were in the running for it. We're proud of our charity work, the Bryan Brothers Foundation. We're doing all we can to help kids survive and thrive and expose them to arts, athletics and academics, set them up in their lives, help them achieve their dreams. We're going to keep doing that. And thanks again for the award. Q. You talked in general terms about the work of your foundation. Can you tell us one story about your work that you feel is particularly appropriate to go with the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award? BOB BRYAN: The work that we're really proud of is Team Bryan in Las Vegas. We work with a guy, Ryan Wolfington. He's taking kids out of troubled homes, teaching them tennis, helping them get college scholarships, really get their lives started, get on the right track. There was a girl, I'm not going to say her name, she's coming from a rough household. Parents, they drink, they were roughing her up a little bit. She was very depressed, tried to take her life. This was in Australia. She's part of this Team Bryan. We were able to send her a message. I wrote a song for her. Our foundation does give to that program and supports her. But she's now on the right track. She came to our event, helped us out as a volunteer. We've stayed really in touch with her. It's nice that we were able to change her life for the better. It seems like she's doing great and totally out of the woods. It was a scary time there for a little bit. Q. Talk about your form in that match, just overall in this tournament, how you felt. MIKE BRYAN: Today we felt a little uncomfortable. Got down the early break in both sets. Credit to them, they played great. They kept us on our heels. Tecau especially, he did everything well. Serving huge, didn't give us many looks on the serve. I think I made six or seven first serves in my first service games. They lit me up cross-court every time. So they came out of the blocks hot. Yeah, when you're down, you can't really get your energy going. It's tough to really stay positive when you're down a set and a break or a break in each set. Credit to them. They're deserving No. 1's. They won a Grand Slam this year, couple titles. Might go on to win this tournament. It was nice to have a shot at No. 1. To play for a match to be No. 1 was pretty cool. Obviously a little bit disappointing. But I think, we've already talked about it, we're going to go back to the drawing board, work even harder. Bob said he's going to be in the gym on Monday. I going to be on a safari, but he's going to be in a gym. We're going to work extra hard. Obviously next year is an important year with the Olympics. Want to try to win another slam, be here again trying to get No. 1. Q. So close to the top, three teams in the semis that could have made No. 1 this weekend. Do you feel it's going to be tight again next year? BOB BRYAN: Yeah. I think doubles improves every year. It's really even. This year the points were divided. I think we had 6,500 points. To our standards, that is a pretty low point number, but there were a lot of teams around that. A lot of teams had a crack at No. 1. There might have even been more had Paris turned out a little different. We would like to next year do what we've done in the past, put up 10,000 plus points and win some big majors and make it really tough for anyone to catch us. If they want to catch us, they're going to have to hit the big number of titles and points. This year we left it wide open. Tecau and Rojer got us. Deservingly so, they played well in the slams, won the Wimbledon title. Usually what we say is to be No. 1 you got to win a slam. Credit to them, they did. They came out here today and played confident. That's why they're holding up the trophy. That doesn't mean that we're going anywhere. We're going to come back next year stronger, healthier and hungrier to do this again 'cause we know what the feeling feels like. It's a great feeling. Those guys are feeling it right now. To be truthful, we were hanging our heads in the locker room. It's not a good feeling. We'll do all we can to get back on top. Q. Can you talk a little bit about Rohan and Florin, a new partnership. MIKE BRYAN: I mean, I think Rohan is probably the hottest player of the tournament. I mean, he's doing everything well. He's got big weapons. It's great to see him doing well so late in his career. As I read an article, he's a late-bloomer. He's been the guy this week to kind of carry that team. But this guy Florin Mergea is a shot-maker. He's clipped us a few times this year. He can do it all from the baseline. They make a great squad with a big returner and big server. To have two Romanians in the final is pretty cool. It's anyone's ballgame tomorrow. It could go either way. Q. I'll ask this question as nicely as I can. Everyone is entitled to a bad year. To what extent do you have to make allowances for the fact you're no longer the youngest on the doubles tour? BOB BRYAN: We were talking about that earlier in the week. This is a year we got a little dinged up. Earlier in our careers, even last year at 36 years old, we were pretty lucky, injury-free. We were a little dinged up this year, had to miss these little pockets. So next year we're just going to try to get stronger in the gym and not take anything for granted, take a trainer on the road, take care of our bodies a little more. Yeah, in the past that was something we could take for granted because we always felt fairly spritely. Yeah, as we get later in our career, it's something we've got to be diligent about, nutrition, the gym work, and the recovery. Q. Is it nice next year to have an Olympic year, something that only comes around every four years. I don't know if you have any mixed doubles planned yet. What's in store there? MIKE BRYAN: We're excited for this Olympic year. It's obviously a big goal of ours, is to make the Olympics and play well there. I think I'm going to play with Bethanie Mattek-Sands. Bob is going to go for Serena, like he always does. Yeah, it's definitely something on the horizon that we're going to try to peak well for and play well for. We've been saying that Rio is a spot on our calendar. We really want to try to get another medal. Hopefully I can get a couple. Bob, who is your partner? BOB BRYAN: I don't know. MIKE BRYAN: He doesn't know yet. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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