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AUSTRALIAN OPENJanuary 16, 2019Mike BryanBob BryanMelbourne, Victoria, Australia THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. How does it feel to be back? BOB BRYAN: Feels good. Yeah, had a great six months at home. Got a little feel for what retirement is going to look like, which was fun. It was nice when I got that surgery. I had a plan. For three months I tried to rehab it, got some stem cell injection at Stanford. Tried a bunch of different things. Probably a little bit what Murray was going through. Just frustration. I couldn't walk right. But once I got the surgery, it was a couple weeks on crutches and a cane. Started feeling no pain at all. I'm five months post-op. Just happy to be out here playing with this guy. He tore it up without me, which was inspiring to watch. I thought we were playing some of our best tennis when I went down, maybe leading up to a slam like he won at Wimbledon. But to see him do it was bittersweet. Obviously I wanted to be there with him. Dude is No. 1 in the world at 40 years old, oldest ever. That gave me a little confidence that I could come back and maybe have a similar run with him. Q. Players get a perspective when they're away. BOB BRYAN: Yeah. Being out really made me appreciate how good we all have it on the tour. It's a great life. You wake up every day with a purpose. You're working hard, trying to build towards holding up those trophies. That purpose is what makes it special. When I was at home getting up and rehabbing, that was kind of my purpose. Luckily I got to watch him on TV a little bit. Look, I'm happy to be back. I got a metal hip. There was no guarantees I was going to make it back. I talked to my mom when I went down in Madrid. She was crying, saying, Hey, you've had a great career. It's been a great ride. When I went and looked at the MRI, it didn't look good. Going in to get a metal hip implant, there's no one that's come back from that in tennis. So there were no guarantees. I'm happy it's feeling good. Seeing the way Andy Murray is feeling kind of hit a nerve with me. I would love to see him do a similar surgery, feel the relief that it gives. I think our hips are pretty similar: just worn down, no cartilage. Q. Would you have done anything different over the years with your training, protecting more your body? BOB BRYAN: Yeah, I mean, I think what hurt me is maybe I didn't stretch enough. My internal-external rotation of my hip was pretty limited, which might have had me grinding in one spot, where I blew the cartilage out maybe because I wasn't working the whole joint, I was just working limited. Maybe I would hit the stretching a little more. He's been a little more diligent with it. MIKE BRYAN: I had problems early on with my career. I went on the rehab program very early. I just sustained it pretty much every day. That's why mine are probably a little bit better off than his. I have a little bit more space. We have exactly genetically the same structure, but it shows that if you stretch and do a few things, you can get a little bit more life out of those joints. Q. You mentioned Andy before. He said he's been in contact with you. When he first got in touch with you, when was that? What sort of advice have you been giving him? BOB BRYAN: I just represent an option for him. That guy does everything you can possibly do as far as training and rehab. He's talked to a million specialists. But I'm really the only guy to be playing on tour with a metal hip. So he's been watching me like a hawk, asking me how I'm feeling after matches, after practices, where I'm at. He's just trying to gauge how long it would take him, if this procedure is an option. Yeah, I'm just trying to be supportive. I never once told him this is the way to go because I do see that singles is a different monster. Those guys are really sliding around, killing themselves for four hours. Who knows if this joint would hold up. It's not going to break, but who knows if you have that little explosiveness needed to be super quick on the singles court. If you're a step slow, it's very exposed out there on a singles court. I'm just telling him, I feel great, quality of life is great, practices are going well. Maybe I'm not 100% yet, but I'm only five months. The doctors said this is more of like a seven or eight months until you feel perfect. Until I feel that, I can't give you the guarantee, but I think he's to the point where this is probably his last option. I would love to see him do it just for quality of life. You can sleep, walk, be with your kids, play. It's frustrating when you can't put on your shoes. Q. Did you watch his match on Monday? BOB BRYAN: Yeah. Q. You of all people could empathize. BOB BRYAN: I was choked up when he announced his retirement. I stayed up till 3 in the morning watching all the tributes on social media. It really hit a nerve with me. I mean, he's a special guy. No one has a heart like him. I think you guys saw the response he got from everyone. Then the match out there, how he just left it all out there. I mean, it's a little bit hard to watch because we hate to see athletes in pain. But he just fights through it like crazy. It's unbelievable. Q. Mike, what was it like being back out on a Grand Slam stage with Bob next to you? MIKE BRYAN: Yeah, I mean, it's extra special. I've been waiting for this guy to come back. Super excited for this moment, to walk out on a court in a slam. It felt kind of like right where we left off. This guy has worked extremely hard. He's bringing a very high level. I mean, we've already won three matches this year against top teams. I mean, we're putting ourselves with a chance to make a run. That's all we can ask for. He's quick. His serve's back. He's got it all. I'm pretty stoked to look over in the deuce court and see this guy back. I can see that he really wanted it. This is the way we want to go out. We want to play together, give it one last run. This is perfect. Q. It wasn't hard for him to persuade you? MIKE BRYAN: It was an automatic. I went down there to Florida. BOB BRYAN: I felt like it was a little bit auditions early December. I hadn't played a point since May. Yeah, I was a little slow. I was probably only about 60% where I am now. He was giving me a little bit of crap. He was supportive, But we can't go down there like this, you're not ready. MIKE BRYAN: Pushed him. BOB BRYAN: Over the next three weeks, I did get to a point where I was able to get on the flight to go to Brisbane. But I've improved since Brisbane. The way the hip is stronger, it's been two and a half weeks, I've probably gained 20% on it since then. Q. The exact procedure you had, the time scale involved, how long before you were able to run, go on a court? BOB BRYAN: It's called a hip resurfacing with an artificial implant. It's a full replacement. Has the bar that goes all the way down the femur. This is a little more a sports, high-performance, smaller metal implant. I was on crutches a couple days later. I was at the US Open three weeks after surgery with a cane. At the end of September, I had the surgery August 2nd, I was just hitting some light balls. We started our training December 5th is when we started hitting some balls pretty hard, playing some sets. Q. Andy Murray, to get that operation done next week, he could be back in four, five, six months? BOB BRYAN: Yeah. I took the flight down to Brisbane a little before five months. I mean, his rehab schedule is probably a lot more intense than mine. But also singles is more intense than doubles, so... That's up to him. Look, no one's ever come back with this surgery on the singles court. I'm showing that it can be done in doubles, but... MIKE BRYAN: See how you feel tomorrow. BOB BRYAN: See how I feel tomorrow, yeah (laughter). Q. You said you feared for your career at one point. What stage in the process did that change? BOB BRYAN: I mean, look, I was trying to rehab it. I was bone on bone in Madrid. I think when I came down on the serve, I chipped the bone. I tried all the rehab. Mike actually flew back from the French. He thought he could work on me because he's been doing this for 15 years. Went to Philly, worked with a guy in Philly. Had a guy electrocuting me in Miami, Dwyane Wade's guy. A needle stem guy. I was in a pool. Then I went out to the West Coast to get a stem cell injection. Nothing helped. There was no cartilage there. I kept missing my deadlines, French Open, Wimbledon. I wanted to play Atlanta. When I couldn't play Atlanta, that's when I said, Okay, I got to get it scoped. I went to Dr. Kelly up in New York to scope it. It's like unscope-able. You'll be back here in six months, you need a replacement. Two days later, I was out cold. I just said, Listen, give me a chance to come back. He's like, Dr. Su has a guy back in Major League Baseball, a guy back in NHL. Never had a guy back in tennis, but he's the only guy that will give you a chance to come back to professional sports. I put all my confidence in Dr. Su. Said, Cut me open. I don't know. I felt better after that. Just gave me at least a goal. I didn't feel like I was on a bad hip any more, so... Q. Andy seems mostly to have been talking about the resurfacing in terms of quality of life, something that can improve his post-tennis quality of life. Do you think there might be reason to have a glimmer of hope for tennis? BOB BRYAN: Yeah, I personally don't underestimate Andy Murray. You look at the great workers in history: Lendl, Courier, Roddick. This guy is maybe even a step up from those guys. I think he's going to have the surgery. He's probably going to just rehab it as best he can. If he sees there's a chance to come back, you know... I personally think he can do it. But, you know, there's no evidence that it's possible in tennis. I mean, so much wear and tear. But I think he could do it. Q. What does it feel like to be Andy's last hope? He's named you several times in the last few days. I'm guessing he'll be following your matches the next few months. How does that feel? BOB BRYAN: Yeah, I'm happy I can be there to support him. He's such a good guy. I think I mentioned on social media that we were in trouble with our charity event, we had no big names. These people were paying a hefty price tag to come play tennis with us, play golf. He showed up and spent the whole afternoon playing tennis with these people. We raised a ton of money, over a million bucks. I'll never forget that. He was there for us. MIKE BRYAN: With a bad hip. BOB BRYAN: With a bad hip. He was limping. But he was running around and helping out. If I could lend a little bit of advice or support, I'm happy to do it. He's extremely educated on this. No one's done more research about hips, doctors. He knew my doctor inside and out, all the cases. The guy is knowledgeable beyond belief on the hip, on the surgery. He's going to do what's best for him. Yeah, he doesn't want to be limping any more. I know he doesn't want to be doing that. I think this is the option. Q. Can you give us a little bit of idea of what the picture was that you saw of retirement? BOB BRYAN: It was nice. I mean, you're going to Disneyland, you don't feel like you're going to pay the price of not practicing for a few days. So, yeah, it feels like when you're in the middle of a hard season like there's a price tag attached to any kind of fun moment. In those few months when my hip was just screwed, I was like, screw it, let's go have some fun. I took a few vacations, went to Key West, we did some stuff that I haven't had the chance to do in my whole career just because a week off, you're going to pay for it at a slam, when you need to have that work under your belt. Yeah, kind of kicked back, no pressure, hanging out with the family, just having great days, enjoying the tour through him, kind of living through that guy. I couldn't believe the stuff he was doing. But, yeah, look, there's a great life for me at home. I got amazing support with my wife, obviously love my kids. I wouldn't be back here if it weren't for my wife telling me, kicking me in the butt, saying it's possible. Q. Were there any fun moments where you said 'yes' in terms of his play? Which moments were really great? What did you learn about this guy from afar? BOB BRYAN: Yeah, I mean, seeing him by himself, it makes you appreciate what you got. I mean, he's one of the greatest returners and volleyers in history. So, yeah, I was just appreciating. When you sit back and watch it on TV, you're like, Wow, that guy has some serious skill. Him winning Wimbledon was like, Whoa. I was like, Ouch. We shared some records, now he's the man with the record. Winning Wimbledon was a little weird. I was in the gym. I couldn't really watch that. It was a little too early. Then US Open I kind of just let it go. Then he won the Open. He went to Davis Cup. That's when I watched every point. I was just yelling at the TV, him and Harrison. I was screaming, talking to some of the coaches on the sidelines. Yeah, I mean, he's a fighter. Yeah, I don't know how he did it. No. 1 in the world at 40 years old, so... A lot of respect for what he accomplished. Q. Where exactly was the doctor? BOB BRYAN: Dr. Su at HSS in New York. Q. Did you say he's the only surgeon that does this kind of operation? BOB BRYAN: He's the only guy that's gotten professional athletes back to their profession. He's the only guy that's gotten them back to the highest level. He's done a baseball guy, an NBA guy, and a hockey. No tennis player yet until me has come back. Q. Did you recommend him to Andy? BOB BRYAN: I would really recommend him, yeah. He's a tennis fan. He knows it inside and out. He's the one that found me a physical therapist down in Florida. I've been on the phone with him many times, texting. Gave me all my exercises that I needed to do. Andy has spoken to him. I don't know who Andy is going to choose if he goes this route, but I would recommend him, Dr. Su. Q. How many hours was the surgery? What pain do you have now? BOB BRYAN: Zero pain. I don't have a labrum. It's just a smooth metal joint. I have more range of motion than he does. It's almost wild. Yeah, the thing just flies around. The biggest thing was getting the explosiveness back and the quickness, the push-off on the serve. When I started playing in December, I was probably pushing off an inch lower. I had to focus on the toss. Now I feel like I'm getting that back. Q. How many hours was the surgery? BOB BRYAN: I think it was 90 minutes. Q. Any warning about any part of this, having the metal in there or anything? He couldn't promise you you were going to play again? BOB BRYAN: What could go wrong? You have to check your blood once a year to see if there's any metal breakoff from the metal ions in your blood from the metal. I think this will last over 20 years, the implant. Like a 95% success rate over 20 years. It's in there for a while. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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