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\n If you ever saw Bob and Mike Bryan on the tennis court, you\u2019ll remember that they were double trouble.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cOpponents described us as like a two-headed monster,\u201d said Mike in an interview with CNN Sports.\n <\/p>\n
\n Dominating men\u2019s doubles for the best part of two decades, they were a dream partnership, identical \u201cmirror\u201d twins who were so in sync that they seemed to be reading each other\u2019s minds. A lefty and a righty playing side by side, they became the most successful men\u2019s doubles partnership of all time, winning 119 titles together, a haul that included 16 grand slams \u2013 including five US Opens \u2013 and an Olympic gold medal.\n <\/p>\n
\n It was an enviable relationship which has led them all the way to the International Tennis Hall of Fame, but on the eve of their induction in Newport, Rhode Island, they admitted that their partnership wasn\u2019t always so harmonious. \u201cWe had our blowouts,\u201d recalled Bob to CNN. \u201cSometimes, it got physical on the court or after matches.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n That would be an understatement, as the brothers revealed what really went on away from the cameras and the cheering crowds. \u201cI remember breaking one of Mike\u2019s guitars,\u201d said Bob, adding: \u201cIt got physical one time in Madrid where he threw some glass vitamins at me, bottles of vitamins that were shattering.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The brothers in arms were sometimes brothers at arms, but no matter how ugly it might have been away from the court, it seemed as though nothing could break their winning spirit.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe had one at Wimbledon,\u201d recalled Mike, \u201cwe\u2019re driving back in the car from the match that we had won. We were discussing the match, things were said, and some finger pointing, and then all of a sudden, one punch was thrown, and then the car is just shaking.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt was like MMA in the backseat, and the driver\u2019s swerving across the road in London. But it\u2019s funny, like, that was a nasty fight, but we went on to win the tournament.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe had this unbreakable bond,\u201d Bob added, \u201cIt could get violent at times, but we\u2019d be having dinner two minutes later. We share the same DNA, when you\u2019re a twin, you\u2019re never really looking for greener pastures, I wasn\u2019t looking for another partner, Mike was my guy.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Mike agrees that their special relationship gave them a rare degree of latitude whenever they needed to blow off steam: \u201cMost normal people would never talk to that person again for the rest of their lives, but that\u2019s just the weird thing about twins, you move on somehow.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
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\n From 1998 until their retirement in 2020, the Bryans fought their way to the top of their game and clocked a record 438 weeks on top of the world rankings.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cEveryone can hit serves and returns and volleys,\u201d Mike explained of their success, \u201cbut it\u2019s that special ingredient, something that you really can\u2019t see, that connection with your partner.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe had the ultimate bond, this twin energy. When we watched some of the matches back, eerily, we\u2019re moving exactly in sync, covering for one another. There\u2019s some unspoken special force happening and that\u2019s what really separated us from the pack.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n For the first 10 years of their professional career, the brothers were inseparable, almost quite literally. They shared a room on tour, ate together, practiced together and even played together in their band.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe whole day would be pretty much together, that\u2019s a lot of hours with one person,\u201d Mike said. \u201cWe even shared a bank account and a house. We were truly a package deal. Most teams only last five or six years together, but we had this unconditional love for each other, and I never really got sick of the guy!\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Having played their first tournament together at the age of 6, the Bryans estimate that they had played thousands of matches by the time they called time on their careers near the beginning of the Covid pandemic in 2020.\n <\/p>\n
\n Having revolutionized the game, they unwittingly gave their opponents a helping hand in their twilight years when they released a video with some of their tips. \u201cEveryone watched it,\u201d said Mike. \u201cThat next year, it was like, \u2018Oh my God, we\u2019re playing against the Bryan brothers,\u2019 everyone had our secret sauce. I wasn\u2019t smart to do that, Bob.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n But no amount of practice by their rivals could replicate what the brothers had going on between them, a kind of unexplained telepathy. Bob told CNN Sports of the time they independently went furniture shopping on opposite sides of the country, unwittingly making exactly the same purchase at the same store.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI was in Florida. Mike was in California, and he called me, and he said, \u2018Hey, check out this couch I bought,\u2019 he just got it from Pottery Barn or something. And I\u2019d gone couch shopping the same day and bought the exact same couch,\u201d Bob said. \u201cI was sitting on the same couch at the same time. And that was the only time I\u2019ve been couch shopping, probably the same for Mike. That\u2019s when we knew we had something freaky going on!\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Bob and Mike could never have imagined that their careers would end up in the Tennis Hall of Fame, an elite club numbering less than 300 of the game\u2019s highest achievers; Maria Sharapova joins them in the class of 2025.\n <\/p>\n
\n Bob admits that the Hall isn\u2019t something they ever put on their list of goals, and Mike understands they are now joining something that is so much bigger than themselves: \u201cIt\u2019s going to be an emotional day, it\u2019s really the ultimate honor in tennis, so we\u2019re humbled and grateful.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/gettyimages-2224144644.jpg\")
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\n Now 47 years old and with families and kids, they don\u2019t see as much of each other as they used to, but they still catch up on the phone multiple times every day. There is talk that they might yet move to be closer to each other in Florida.\n <\/p>\n
\n They\u2019re still involved in tennis, Bob is captain of the US Davis Cup team, Mike is a coach, and they still get together to play in the old guy\u2019s division at Wimbledon every year. \u201cWe\u2019re undefeated in retirement,\u201d brags Bob.\n <\/p>\n
\n Some things never change, although hopefully now they\u2019re able to sit back in peace and enjoy the ride back to the hotel.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facebook Tweet Email Link If you ever saw Bob and Mike Bryan on the tennis court, you\u2019ll remember…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":174671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[62,1464,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-174670","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}