On a typical Los Angeles day, with typical Los Angeles weather, spectators attending the doubles final at the LA Tennis Open witnessed a typical Los Angeles result: The Bryan brothers had won yet another LATO championship.
Top-seeded Mike and Bob Bryan, natives of Camarillo, defeated Benjamin Becker and Frank Moser of Germany 6-4, 7-6(2) to capture their fifth LATO doubles title.
The score would suggest a fiercely competitive battle, but in reality the Bryans had this match under control from the national anthem to the trophy presentation.
Becker and Moser gave a valiant effort but at times looked mixed up and overpowered by the Bryans’ strong net play and inch-perfect serves.
“Even though it’s not a Grand Slam or Masters tournament, we really get up for it,” Mike Bryan said after the match.
“There’s an extra focus we have playing in front of all our friends and family,” Bob Bryan said. “They’re cheering every point and just kind of nudging us forward. You never get down or lose concentration when you’ve got your friends and family hugging you.”
This title is the Bryans’ 56th career ATP Tour tournament win out of 93 finals appearances. It is also remarkable that the Bryans have been able to retain their supremacy at the LATO after winning their first title here in 2001. The twins also won the event in 2004, 2006 and 2007. They have not dropped a set in 12 LATO matches dating back to the first round of the 2006 tournament. (The Bryans did not participate in the 2008 LATO because they were competing in the Beijing Olympics.)
To put this feat in perspective, only one other doubles tandem has won the event more than once; Phil Dent and John Alexander won in 1971 and reclaimed the title in 1978.
“To come back here next year and see another year up on the board (denoting each championship won), it means a lot to be up there five times,” Bob Bryan said.
The Bryans were dominant on serve. Moser and Becker broke the Americans only once, early in the first set, and managed to win all of two return points in the second set. Both teams held serve in the second set until the tiebreaker, where the Bryans eventually triumphed, 7-2.
The match was relatively clean, with Becker and Moser committing the match’s only double fault at 5-2 in the second-set tiebreaker and each team making scarce unforced errors.
The Bryans are tied in points and each ranked No. 1 as individuals in the ATP’s doubles rankings, but land behind Canada’s Daniel Nestor and Serbia’s Nenad Zimonjic at the top of the doubles team standings. The brothers have played doubles together since they were children. In stark contrast, Moser is ranked No. 80 and Becker No. 237 in the individual doubles rankings. The pair does not appear in the team doubles rankings simply because they have never played in an ATP Tour event together before this year’s LATO.
For the Bryans, their latest triumph marks the first since the Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston in April.
The Bryans reached the finals of Wimbledon and the Masters tournaments in Monte Carlo, Monaco and Rome but failed to come out on top in either of those matches. They won their doubles match in the Davis Cup quarterfinals against Croatia last month, but the USA fell 3-2.
“We came home from Europe without a title,” Bob Bryan said. “We lost a few tough finals. We weren’t playing bad tennis; I thought we were playing some of the best tennis we’ve ever played at Wimbledon. It was tough. We went over there trying to focus on the big ones, the French Open, Wimbledon and Davis Cup. I thought we played well in all three, but we just didn’t get across the finish line in first.”