Milestone Win For Mike Bryan As Twins Reach SFs
Milestone Win For Mike Bryan As Twins Reach SFs
Kontinen/Peers advance, defending champions beaten
Mike Bryan celebrated a special milestone on Tuesday at the US Open as he and twin brother Bob Bryan defeated Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-3, 6-4 in the quarter-finals.
The result sees Mike Bryan move ahead of Daniel Nestor as the player with most doubles match wins with 1052 victories to his name. Nestor has 1051, while Bob Bryan has 1038.
“It’s a cool milestone,” Mike said. “Obviously it’s going to feel sweeter when we do it together, but for a few weeks I’m going to be the No. 1 guy, he’ll be the No. 3. It’s a lot of matches, what can I say?
“It’s 19 years on tour. To pass our good friend Nesty – he just turned 45 – we’ve got a lot of respect for him. Hopefully we can notch another one in the semis.”
Bob was forthcoming when explaining how the pair did not share an identical win-loss record. The momentary split in schedules came about 15 years ago.
“I think I’m 13 or 14 matches back from this guy. He’s got 1,052, whatever that is,” Bob laughed. “2002 I played some singles qualifying at the Slams and he went out there and played four tournaments. I think he went semis, final, win, win so he claims he’s the greatest of all time. He has a good record without me but he still needs that lefty serve.”
“You’re never gonna catch me,” Mike said.
“Anyway yeah, I’ll never catch him,” Bob added. “Zimonjic has been hitting me up, emailing and texting me saying you’ve gotta catch this guy … Yeah I’m gonna take him out.”
The Bryans are hoping to win their first Grand Slam championship in three years, since raising the 2014 US Open trophy. The 39-year-old twins are currently fifth in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London, having finished runners-up at the Australian Open and won titles in Eastbourne and Atlanta.
Match point for ?? @Bryanbros & @bryanbrothers as they win in two sets, 6-3, 7-5. Welcome to the SFs! #USOpen @MBUSA pic.twitter.com/VY5Jf7AGg4
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 5, 2017
The Bryans will face 11th-seeded Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez, who were 6-4, 7-5 winners over Robin Haase and Matwe Middelkoop. Lopez and Lopez are looking to win their second Grand Slam championship together, following victory at Roland Garros last year.
Top seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers booked their semi-final spot with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Nicholas Monroe and John-Patrick Smith. The victory comes one day after Kontinen and Peers became the second team to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals in London at the end of the year.
The Finnish/Australian duo, who won the year-end championships at The O2 last year, are chasing their second major title of the season after lifting the trophy at the Australian Open in January (d. Bryans).
Kontinen and Peers will challenge Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau after the 12th seeds upset defending champions Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares 6-1, 6-2 in just 62 minutes. Rojer and Tecau have now claimed eight wins in a row, having come into the US Open on the back of victory at the Winston-Salem Open (d. Peralta/Zeballos) – their third ATP World Tour title of the season.