‘OSAKA PUT OUT A STRONG MESSAGE’

MUMBAI: Bob and Mike—popularly known as the Bryan brothers on the professional tennis tour and regarded as the greatest doubles pair in the sport—were for a change watching the US Open on television, having announced their retirement days prior to the tournament.

The identical twins felt surreal watching a Grand Slam final in a near-empty Arthur Ashe Stadium amid the pandemic and could only imagine the energy of the crowd adding to the ebb and flow of the topsy-turvy last set and tie-breaker of the Dominic Thiem-Alexander Zverev clash.

“You’ve seen over the years how crowds have driven some of the finals to insane levels,” Bob said in a chat on Monday.

“I would’ve been interested to see how the crowds would’ve reacted to what we saw in the final yesterday. It was high drama. I was feeling the nerves for those guys, both going for their first Slam wins.”

The brothers themselves played in 20 Majors before they finally held the first of their record 16 Slam doubles titles at the 2003 French Open. The duo could thus relate to how Thiem, who’s done his fair share of waiting in the queue before winning his maiden singles title, felt.