Wednesday night found the Bryan brothers one step closer to
their goal of winning the Mercedes-Benz Cup.
The doubles team ““ of twins ““ defeated the team of
Alex Bogomolov-Taylor Dent, 6-2, 7-6 in a match that, despite a
small comeback from Bogomolov-Dent in the second set, went to the
Bryans easily.
“I think we know doubles better than they do,” said
twin Mike, who is only discernible from Bob as being the
right-handed half of the pair. “We had to make them feel
uncomfortable through poaching and playing through the
middle.”
Immediately following Mardy Fish’s singles victory over
Belgian Gilles Elseneer, the Bryans took the court at Straus
Stadium with confidence, but lost the first game of the match.
After trading games in the beginning of the match, the Bryans
surged ahead at 3-2 and didn’t look back, taking the
remaining three games for the set. The set was decided at 40-30,
when Bob made a cross-court overhead kill hit with such fierceness
it prompted Dent to duck for cover.
The second set wasn’t as decisive, however. Bogomolov-Dent
again took the first game, but it was the second game that provided
some fireworks. At deuce in the pivotal second game, the Bryans
eeked out the game to make it 1-1, prompting Bogomolov to slam his
racquet down in frustration. An overhead kill by Mike Bryan put the
twins ahead 2-1, but Bogomolov-Dent refused to give the match away.
In fact, the pair were ahead at 6-5 for the set but couldn’t
pull through as the Bryans continually employed a serve and volley
technique that forced their opponents, especially Bogomolov, to
stay on the run. At one point Bogomolov took a pseudo-swan dive
into the net in an attempt to return a chip from the Bryans.
An overhead kill by Bob forced the set into tiebreak, with the
Bryans taking the last four points consecutively for the match,
only after bodyslamming in celebration following their point to
even the tiebreak at 1-1.
“When it gets into the tiebreaker, you never know
what’s going to happen,” said Mike. “This is our
first match on hard court for a long time and we’re healthy
and feeling good.”
Thursday, the Bryans will face the team of Robbie Koenig
(Russia) and Thomas Shimada (Japan), an unseeded team who defeated
Mardy Fish and Jeff Morrison in the Round of 16, in the
quarterfinals.