Mike Bryan and Bob Bryan, the most successful doubles team in tennis history, have announced their retirement at the age of 42. The Bryan Brothers have won a record 16 Grand Slam doubles titles in a career spanning 22 years.
The duo, absent from the entry list of the US Open 2020, reported for the first time of their decision to Christopher Carey of New York Times. The power duo has announced their retirement from the sport, effective immediately.
“At this age, it takes so much work to go out there and compete. We still love to play, but we don’t love preparing our bodies to go out. The recovery is tougher. We feel like we were competitive this year, last year, the year before. We want to go out immediately, where we still have good tennis ” Mike Bryan said about the reason behind their retirement.
The Bryan Brothers have won a record 119 titles playing together and have also won over 1,100 tours. They dominated the tennis tour and finished 10 seasons as the best doubles team in the world. The American duo have been ranked number 1 in the world for a record 438 weeks and will go down in tennis history as the most successful doubles team to date.
“We were practically unstoppable for those years”, Bob said in a Zoom call. “We were short on serve and smiling, and not even a little bit of negativity entered our game.”
The legendary doubles team played their last tournament at the Delray Beach Open in 2019, which they successfully defended.
Bryan Brothers had a goal of reaching number 1 in the world at age 8
Bob Bryan posted an exciting post on Instagram reflecting on the extraordinary journey.
Born to tennis-teaching parents, Wayne and Kathy, the identical twins won their first title together at the age of six. Bob and Mike Bryan had a goal of reaching world number 1 in doubles at age eight, which they posted on their refrigerator.
Wayne Bryan, the father of the duo, noted that the twins were born to play tennis and never wanted to compete against each other. The Bryan Brothers have won six Australian Open titles, two French Open titles, three Wimbledon titles and five US Open titles. The duo also created the story after completing a Golden Masters career in 2014 after winning the Shanghai Masters.
