London: The Bryan twins are down, but definitely not out — that’s the word of caution sent out by one of the top doubles pairings in the world.
Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau started off their search for a maiden doubles crown at the year-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Marcin Matkowski and Nenad Zimonjic on Monday, a day after the Bryan twins had folded before Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea.
Four-time champions here, the Bryan brothers lead the doubles field with a narrow 65-point lead over No. 2 Rojer and Tecau. Ivan Dodig/Marcelo Melo and Jamie Murray/John Peers are the other two pairs who could end as the world number one, should they win at the O2 this weekend.
Surprisingly, this is the first time in a decade that the Americans have gone without a win in any of the four Grand Slams. New teams like Rojer and Tecau have not just won the majors, but also found a way to beat the Bryan brothers.
“This year they haven’t won a slam, but you can never really write them off. I know everybody’s getting a bit older, and they also have a private life and a family. So a lot of stuff changes and life goes on. Maybe this year they didn’t have a year as they would have expected to or hoped for, but they’re still there for No. 1 as a team and this speaks of their quality as a team,” Rojer said.
“I think they would be the first to say they haven’t had a year that’s up to their standards maybe because in years past, they had accumulated 12,000 or 13,000 points or maybe even more,” he added.
The men’s doubles competition is also evolving and getting better by the day.
“Players are getting better. We have a lot more singles players in doubles as well which forces everybody to raise their level. I know we enjoy having those guys around to push us and be better. I would like to think, at least for us, I can’t speak for anybody else, we’re trying to inch closer to where they are,” Rojer remarked.
“We are very focused on what we need to do, what we need to do to get better. We’d like to keep improving and getting better. If that at some point leads us to surpass them and be the No. 1 team, I think we try to better ourselves with our practices and matches and results and things,” he added.
