Bob and Mike Bryan are fast and furious on court. So fast and so furious that fans have been known to break out sweating just by watching them. In person and in reality (or on stage with their band) they might appear to be laid back California kids, but on the court they are edgy, angry warriors who want to win at all costs. Perpetually ready for the next ball, next point, next title match, the Bryans bounce to the beat of their own desire, never relenting in their singular purpose: to win, or, if all else should fail, to go down with an epic fight. At 34, they keep bouncing. And they keep winning too. That’s how the winningest tandem in men’s doubles history (79 doubles titles and counting) rolls. Doubles is a rapid-fire sport, and the Bryan Brothers fire rapidly, at whoever stands on the other side of the net. Last week at the 2012 Olympic Games, some of the top singles players in the world, anxious to crossover to doubles for a shot to claim some hardware for their countries, were the ones on the other side of the net. Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, David Ferrer and a host of other widely recognized singles players all joined the doubles draw in the hopes of medaling at London. But as good as each of them is as a singles player, none of them can boast the freakish doubles intuition that the Bryans possess on court. The Bryans are indentical twins, but they play as if they are Siamese twins. It’s as if they are one singular phenom, moving and communicating without really having to speak, seeing things with the same pair of eyes, which just so happen to be in the back of their head. All that chemistry leads to victories, and the Bryans have the milestones to prove it. They’ve spent nearly 300 weeks as the No. 1 team in the world. They’ve served and volleyed their way to the ATP’s year-end No. 1 ranking seven times. They’ve chest-bumped at the end of eleven Grand Slams, which puts them on the cusp of breaking John Newcombe and Tony Roche’s all-time record of 12 in the not-too-distant future.
When it comes to doubles, Bob and Mike Bryan have done just about everything a duo can do, and they’ve achieved it all—as featured on 60 minutes, in K-Swiss adds, and not without the occasional fist fight—right by each other’s sides. But until last week at London, they had never accomplished what they viewed as their ultimate dream: an Olympic Gold medal. In their last two Olympic Games the Bryans had gone down to the eventual winners, losing in 2004 to Fernando Gonzalez and Nicolas Massu of Chile in the quarters, and in 2008 to Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka in the semis.
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