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Seventh heaven for Bryan brothers in men’s doubles


The Bryan brothers notched up their seventh doubles Grand Slam title in Melbourne with a 2-6 7-5 6-0 victory over Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles.

The American twins, who reclaimed the No.1 doubles spot by reaching the final, avenged last year’s quarter-final loss to the pair that had prevented them from winning a potential hat-trick of back-to-back Melbourne Park titles.

Since then the 30-year-olds have now won all five of the matches between the twosomes, most recently the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai.

The Bryan brothers got off to a sluggish start in the final, dropping the first set in less than half an hour as Bob Bryan was broken twice. The second set was a much tighter affair with Bhupathi and Knowles squandering three break points in the seventh game of the second set. In the end it was Knowles who proved to be the first to blink, dropping serve in the final game of the set to take it into a decider.

With the momentum shifting their way, the Bryans didn’t give Bhupathi and Knowles a sniff of a chance during the third set, breaking three times and dropping just 10 points to seal the match and title.

Their seventh Grand Slam crown makes the Bryans the joint-second most decorated men’s doubles team since tennis turned professional in 1968. The pairings of John Newcombe and Tony Roche and Peter Fleming and John McEnroe also won seven titles.

But there’s still work to be done if they want to catch the Australian pair of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, who hold the record with 11 Grand Slam doubles titles.


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Tim Farthing, Tennishead Editorial Director & Owner, has been a huge tennis fan his whole life. He's a tennis journalist and entrepreneur as well as playing tennis to a national standard. He also helps manage his local club and volunteers for his local tennis organisation. He's a specialist in content about the administration of professional tennis and tennis coaching for all levels.