(July 23, 2024) ATLANTA, GA – Ahead of the Bob and Mike Bryan taking on Andy Roddick and John Isner in the Champions Challenge on Monday night at the 2024 Atlanta Open, Tennis Panorama had a chance to talk about the upcoming Olympic Games with the Bryan Brothers. The Bryan brothers are the most successful team in men’s doubles history, winning 119 titles.
Bob Bryan, who is the Davis Cup coach, is the men’s team captain for the men’s Olympic tennis squad.
“We’ve got great singles options,” said Bob Bryan. “We got Chris Eubanks from this area Atlanta, he’s excited to play, he’s pumped.”
“Marcus Giron just won Newport yesterday (Monday), he’s on a plane flying over to Paris as we speak and then our top two Americans Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul, who’ve been having great summers so far.
“I think we are in the conversation to win a medal in singles. We’ve got two great doubles teams in Paul and Fritz, who haven’t played a lot of doubles matches together but they will be dangerous (Rajeev) Ram and (Austin) Krajicek are both grand slam champions, both have been No. 1 in the world. On the mixed (doubles) side, it could be Coco Gauff and Fritz – they’re one of our strong options and they’ll be as good a chance as anyone to go on and win the gold. Mike is coming over with us, we are both helping the team out.”
“Not worried about ourselves this much as trying to get the players ready and give them the best scouting reports, the right training, making sure that everything is being taken care of for them and giving our guys the best chance,” noted Mike Bryan.
Mike and Bob discussed their own Olympic experiences:
“We played three Olympics,” said Mike Bryan. Started off in Athens (2004) – it was a huge arc because we were almost like we were guaranteed a medal and felt like we let our country down and each other down and it was a heartbreak and then went over to Beijing (2008) and got the bronze and we felt like it was one of our greatest achievements to get an Olympic medal. But the public said ‘okay what happened guys? You guys should have won the gold.’ “
“So we felt almost apologetic to the US public that we didn’t get the gold,” Bob Bryan said.
“And then we went over to London (2012) and had these huge aspirations to go all the way and it happened,” said Mike Bryan. It felt like the universe kind of worked in our favor I think we won 7 tiebreakers and the emotions to get that medal draped around your neck there is nothing like it. It felt like that was the last piece of the puzzle for us to complete or put a bow on our career. It felt like an amazing feeling and I feel still like that’s our biggest achievement because it almost transcended doubles in tennis.
“And so we have really fond memories of the Olympic experience. We did the opening ceremonies, it just shows that you are a part of this huge squad, the superpower and you are not just competing for yourself for the whole team and the country itself. Really, really cool experience and we are excited to share with the guys on the team with us and the women and help inspire them and show them how enthusiastic we were.”
So what’s their advice to the tennis Olympians?
Mike Bryan: “Sometimes it’s just a once in a lifetime experience. You want to just enjoy the whole experience, but you want to give it your best shot and so it’s a balance and to have fun but also you need a bit of blinders to make sure you play your best because the opening ceremonies is the night before the first round…it can go until 2 in the morning.”
Bob Bryan: “You soak it up, you’ve earned this opportunity it’s amazing to become an Olympian. Your ranking has to be high to earn that privilege to be there and a lot of those athletes that are there are not there to win medals. They’re there just to be an Olympian, that’s…they’ve already won. I would say that’s most people. Like Mike said, put your blinders on, pull your head down and you go to war and try to come out with that armor on. You’re going to make it that much sweeter, and I think that all of our guys are on that same page. They are happy to be there but they all want to bring something home.”
The Bryan Brothers defeated the Andy Roddick, John Isner team in the Monday night Champions Challenge 7-6,7-5.
