Bob & Mike Bryan Win the Wimbledon Men's Doubles Title

Yesterday, commenting on the anti-American memes Brits are bombarded with daily by their press, Gerard Baker wrote in The London Times:

IT'S PROBABLY just as well no US tennis players made it beyond the quarter-finals at Wimbledon this year because it's evidently going to be an uncomfortable summer for Americans in London.

Thus Baker ironically supplies another example of the inaccuracy of the British press on things American. For, Mike and Bob Bryan were alive and well.

And are now the men's doubles champions, having just defeated sixth-seeded team of Fabrice Santoro (of France) and Nenad Zimonjik (of Serbia and Montenegro) 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the final on Centre Court.

And though the crowd was a bit cool, it was an audience of real tennis players who know and appreciate good doubles when they see it. Presumably this was because the chattering classes left after the women's final, and real tennis players took advantage of the opportunity to purchase their seats for only 8 pounds apiece, soon filling Centre Court for the men's doubles final -- er, I mean the Gentlemen's Doubles Final.

They were quite appreciative of Americans' doubles play, which is head-and-shoulders above the rest of the field. For example, they loved it when Mike was so well positioned and ready for an 85-degree-angle shot that he not only easily reached it, he wisely waited on it to hit AROUND the net at about two feet off the ground for an unplayable winner.

That's a guy who knows doubles.

Speaking for myself, what a delight to see the game played the way it should be played. What a delight to watch a real team in action, not just two singles players on the same end of the court. They win, not because their strokes and shots are superior, but because their positioning, strategy, teamwork, and tactics are superior.

I suspect that their opponents don't even know how they are being beaten.

Zimonjik, for example, failed to switch when his partner crossed to poach. There's no excuse for that in professional doubles.

In contrast, both Bryans are always where they should be and are always doing what they should be doing. For example, they EARN many opportunities to poach just from wisely knowing when to front the opposing hitter's shot. Result? It looks like the ball comes right to their net player or as though he has ESP. Wrong: the Bryans just thoroughly understand this athletic game of chess and how to play it.

My only criticism would be that they occasionally overplay shots.

In the set Mike and Bob lost (the second) they had trouble getting the service return past the opposing net player. This gave the opposition a big lift, especially Zimonjik, resulting in great play from him that won the lethal service break.

Most players would attribute that break to poor serving or other poor play in that service game. But the Bryans showed that they understood it was due to excellent play by their opponents, especially Zimonjik -- excellent play THEY brought out of him by giving him chances to put away service returns in the previous game, thus putting him on a roll.

How did they show that they understood this? When the final set got tight, the Bryans made sure that didn't happen again by positioning both-back for some first-service returns. It wasn't really necessary this time, but it shows you that they are always thinking, always analyzing, and always adapting.

Moreover, at 2-all in the fourth and deciding set, they zeroed-in on the confidence of Zimonjik and actually picked on him to get in his head. It worked. How's that for targeted tactics?

Another great thing about them is their team spirit. They are team players, always working to encourage and bring the best out of each other. You never see one of them hang his head or do anything that would tend to encourage the opposition and discourage his partner.

Here are the match statistics from the Wimbledon Website:


Two statistics stand out. The Bryans won 68% of the points on which they had to take a second serve. This shows how solid their whole game is. And the real killer was that they only committed 2 unforced errors in the match.

This was their seventh straight Grand Slam Final and their first Wimbledon championship. Congratulations to the undisputed Kings of Doubles for a job well done.