Wednesday night at the Farmers Classic, Camarillo’s favorite sons made their long-awaited return to the Los Angeles Tennis Center, displaying the form that has them destined to break one of tennis’ great records.
Brothers Mike and Bob Bryan rolled to a 6-3, 6-4 victory over American Mardy Fish and Bahamian Mark Knowles in a match that lasted exactly one hour on Straus Stadium.
The Bryans are now three wins away from breaking the all-time record for doubles tournament victories. They tied the mark held by “The Woodies” ““ Australian greats Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde ““ with their 61st win back in May at the Madrid Masters.
It always is a bit of a homecoming whenever the twins from Camarillo make an appearance in Los Angeles. It’s the only tournament they’ve won five times, and more often than not, the throngs of family and friends that come out to support them go home happy.
“We were playing on that court when we were 6 years old,” Mike said. “That’s our favorite court in the world.
“We treat this tournament like one of the biggest tournaments in the world. When we come here, we want to put on a good show, and when we look up to the stands it’s a pretty full house.”
Fish and Knowles ““ the No. 30-ranked doubles team in the world and not a slouch of a tandem themselves ““ were no match for the No. 2-ranked duo in the world.
Fish, who has won two straight ATP singles events in Atlanta and Newport, RI, came into the match with a heavily taped left ankle ““ an injury he suffered during his run to the title in Atlanta.
The 38-year-old Knowles, who starred at UCLA from 1990 to 1992 and was once a part of the top doubles team in the world, was a shell of his old self Wednesday. The Bryans converted break points early in both sets while Knowles was on serve and put it on cruise control to take the match.
“Mardy’s the hottest player on the tour, so we knew he was going to flash some brilliant shots, which he did,” Bob said. “And Knowlesy, he’s done UCLA proud on that court in the past. He’s one of the best doubles players of all time.”
The next test for the Bryans comes Thursday night against Ernests Gulbis and Dmitry Tursunov.
No. 62 is looming ““ one fan even had a sign proclaiming “1 Bryan 1 Bryan = 62 wins” ““ but Mike and Bob aren’t thinking too much about it yet.
“It was more getting to 61, that’s the number we were looking at,” Bob said.
“We don’t feel that pressure. It would be nice to do it here though.”
Querrey tested
Defending singles champion Sam Querrey got a scare in the nightcap Wednesday.
Querrey defeated South African Kevin Anderson 7-6 (10-8), 4-6, 6-0, but not without some trepidation.
The first-set tiebreak was a dramatic affair. Querrey saved three set points in a row, then a fourth shortly afterward, before coming back to take the set. But that momentum didn’t carry on to the second. Querrey was quickly down two breaks and dropped the set before attacking Anderson with his forehand and blanking him in the third.
Querrey moves on to play Germany’s Rainer Schuettler in the quarterfinals.
Wednesday’s scores
Singles, second round
[2] Sam Querrey (USA) def. Kevin Anderson (South Africa) 7-6 (10-8), 4-6, 6-0
[3] Marcos Baghdatis (Cyprus) def. Ryan Sweeting (USA) 3-6, 6-2, 6-3
[6] Janko Tipsarevic (Serbia) def. [Q] Somdev Devvarman (India) 7-6 (11-9), 6-2
Rainer Schuettler (Germany) def. Robby Ginepri (USA) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4
Doubles, first round
[1] Bob Bryan (USA) / Mike Bryan (USA) def. Mardy Fish (USA) / Mark Knowles (Bahamas) 6-3, 6-4
[2] Robert Lindstedt (Sweden) / Horia Tecau (Romania) def. Andre Sa (Brazil) / Horacio Zeballos (Argentina) 7-6 (7-2), 6-1
Ernests Gulbis (Latvia) / Dmitry Tursunov (Russia) def. Santiago Gonzalez (Mexico) / Travis Rettenmaier (USA) 6-3, 3-6, (11-9)
Eric Butorac (USA) / Jean-Julien Rojer (Netherlands Antilles) def. Carsten Ball (Australia) / Chris Guccione (Australia) 6-3, 6-7 (7-4), (10-6)
[4] Rohan Bopanna (India) / Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (Pakistan) def. Colin Fleming (Great Britain) / Ken Skupski (Great Britain) 6-7 (7-3), 6-0, (10-7)