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BARCLAYS ATP WORLD TOUR FINALSNovember 11, 2013Mike BryanBob BryanLONDON, ENGLAND MARRERO‑VERDASCO/Bryan‑Bryan THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. I know you lost, but in terms of promoting doubles, surely it doesn't get much better than that. MIKE BRYAN: Yeah, it shows how much they value that win and how big it was for them. I thought it was pretty good tennis. You know, we didn't play poorly. They came up with the goods, especially when it mattered. They went for broke. You know, hitting those forehands, like overheads. Thought it was a pretty slow court. Same as last year. The Spaniards won last year. You know, we could have done a few things different. All in all, you know, you get down to a match tiebreaker, which we've been playing all week, you're dancing with the devil. Didn't go our way there at the end. Q. This year you beat them at Roland Garros on clay. This is the opposite world or the court was slow? BOB BRYAN: Yeah, I mean, as you saw last year with López, Granollers, this court does allow for guys to have time on their forehand. Doesn't matter how well you strike the return, the ball will hit the court and slow down and give these guys a chance to really rip the forehand, which they did. They did it as well as it can be done. Got to give them credit. They really stepped up. They might have been due for a win against us. I mean, we've been playing against Fernando for over 10 years and never lost to him. I knew he was bound to get us one of these times. Unfortunately it had to be here at the O2. But I'm happy for them. They're going to be right in the mix of it next year as a, you know, top‑four team. Hopefully we'll get some revenge. It would be sweet to bounce back with a win against those guys. Q. You got Davis Cup in SanDiego the week after the Australian Open. Can you shed any thoughts on how you see that one going. MIKE BRYAN: Whew, that's a long way off. It's another Davis Cup tie where the doubles point is extremely important. We're hoping to do a little better next year than this year, losing a couple tight five‑setters. We'd like to play our role and get the U.S. a point. You know, that's going to be in our sites when we're training in the off‑season, to perform well, you know, for that Davis Cup tie. It's in our Southern California area, which we grew up. We're going to have a ton of support, a lot of family and friends. We want to step up for our country. It's going to be kind of a first to play a home tie on dirt. I'm sure we're going to break out the clay court shoes in the off‑season and hit a couple, have that in our sites while we're training in December. Q. Are you planning anything different in terms of tournaments for next year? Do you have any cities that are still on the wish list? BOB BRYAN: We've never been to Africa or the Middle East. We keep saying we're going to do it, but we don't have it on the schedule for next year. It's a similar schedule. Memphis, Delray, after the Aussie Open, Indian Wells, Miami, then straight over to Monte‑Carlo. We'll spend the whole European clay court season and grass court season in Europe. I don't think we'll come home. That could change if Michelle and the baby and Micaela hack at home. Maybe I can make a quick trip to see them. That's the way we've been doing it. It worked out well this year. Q. I know that every year you set yourself challenges and new goals. How are you going to go about potentially bettering this year? MIKE BRYAN: Yeah, it's going to be tough to better this year. 11 titles, we won five Masters Series and three slams. We'll take a year like this every year. I don't know if we're going to better it, but we'd love to be on the same pace as we did this year. You know, we can improve things. We're always finding new things to work on. The game is getting better, as you saw this week. Five super breakers against the top eight teams. The whole field is kind of catching up to us. We like to keep raising our level as we get older. That's just tweaking a few things. Yeah, we'll have the hundred‑title mark on the horizon. We'd love to shoot that down next year. Just be a consistent team and try to finish No.1. Q. You said you really haven't had the chance to get into the political side of the game, maybe you'd do more of that when you retired. Did you have a chance to see any of the comments that Novak made the other night, but he said, We don't have time for politics. I assume he meant the top players. Also, There are many things that can be improved but it doesn't happen because we don't have enough say in the present structure. I'm curious what you think about the kind of tension that top players have arguably the most power, and on the other hand you have also the least time and energy given your on‑ and off‑court commitments. What can happen to find some middle ground there between the time and the authority that you have? BOB BRYAN: Yeah, it's a very tough deal because the top players are playing, you know, close to a hundred matches a year. The preparation, the recovery, it's non‑stop. We have photo shoots, we have exhibitions. It's tough to shift the focus on how to better the tour or our sport. So right now, I mean, we just try to find the best player reps that we can, people that will take our voice into the meetings and the boardrooms, that will hopefully sway the tournament directors and the tour to do the right thing and represent us the best way. We feel comfortable that we have that. You know, doubles can be swept a little bit under the carpet. It might be the fifth thing on the agenda of some of these meetings, even lower. That's where we feel like when we retire maybe we'll have a lot more time to get in there and grind, try to make doubles a more ‑ I don't know how you say it ‑ popular product to these tournament directors so they'll use it on TV or use it on the stadium courts. Right now it's tough for us to spend time doing that, to be in the trenches, when we have warmups and matches like today. Q. In the past you've said this is probably your third greatest season of your career if you look back in all the years you've played. Can you tell me about the sacrifices you've made this year to win 11 titles, three Grand Slams, and everything. MIKE BRYAN: Yeah, this is probably our greatest season. Did you say third greatest? Q. In your career, you've said in the past you've had three great years. MIKE BRYAN: Yeah, I mean, it's a full‑time job. I mean, we're putting in a ton of work. When we're home, we're thinking about just ways to improve. You know, when we're at tournaments, it's almost every waking minute we're, you know, trying to do the right thing for our bodies, preparing for the next team. You know, we're just as professional as some of these top singles guys. I just read Novak Djokovic's book. He says he spends 14 hours a day, you know, preparing his body, his mind, his game, you know, just to get better. You know, we're the same. We're extremely goal‑oriented and focused on trying to achieve No.1. You know, that's all encompassing. But on the other hand you got to balance it with the family, we love music. 15 years and we've been going pretty hard. BOB BRYAN: Yeah. When we put the racquets down, we'll definitely know we gave it everything, we rung every last drop out of this tour. Our minds have stayed focused on that prize from day one. You know, we've never once had a lapse in our energy and in our focus. Yeah, that means not going out and partying. There's a lot of sacrifices that you make. But it's definitely worth it, so... Q. A lot of sacrifices. I shouldn't ask this for fear of the answer. Kids grow up very quickly. Is there a danger you'll regret having missed too much of the growing‑up process? BOB BRYAN: For myself, Micaela is only a year and a half. I did get married and had babies late in the career, which was definitely planned. You know, I wanted to get the meat of the career done before I shifted into family man and daddy mode. Yeah, I'm not going to ever spend more than two to three weeks away from the kids. I can't do it. This is the third week, and I'm starting to lose my mind. Those kids will be traveling. Once they hit school and kindergarten or whatever, I'll probably be shutting it down. Q. Talk about the clay court, grass court swing. BOB BRYAN: They're going to be on the road. Just plan on getting a little bigger room. We'll have a full bed. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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