Photo: Courtsey of Wayne Bryan
World No. 1 team, Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, won their 70th tou team title on Sunday when they won the Monte-Carlo Masters title for a second time with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over the unseeded South American team of Juan Ignacio Chela and Bruno Soares.
Of their 70 titles, 18 of them have come at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 level, placing tied for an all-time second place with Todd Woodbridge.
Bob and Mike also won the title in 2007 and finished runners-up in 2005 and 2009.
“It feels great to win title No. 70, but even better to beat an experienced clay-court team in one of our favorite tournaments of the year,” said Bob Bryan. “Thanks to Prince Albert for staying to watch the doubles final, we really appreciate it.”
Mike Bryan added, “We’re very happy to play so well in Monte-Carlo; it’s been a while since we’ve won here. We’re feeling really good on the clay and we’re looking forward to the rest of the clay-court season.”
Victory brought the Bryans their third tour-level title of the season and their second in as many weeks. They won their 10th Grand Slam championship at the Australian Open (d. Bhupathi-Paes) in January and opened their clay-court campaign last week with success in Houston at the beautiful and venerable River Oaks Country Club (d. Isner-Querrey).
Chela and Soares, who upset two seeded teams en route to the final, made the better start to the match, breaking to lead 2-1. But the South Americans had no chance to build on their lead as the Bryans quickly leveled and broke serve again in the seventh game to take a one-set lead. Capitalizing on their momentum, the Bryans swiftly opened up a 2-0 lead in the second set and went on to close out victory on Mike Bryan’s serve, after saving three break points, in 54 minutes.
“There were a lot of crazy points out there,” reflected Bob Bryan. “I think the fans had a good time because there were a lot of contrast of styles – baseline points, big serves, drop volleys. I just felt like we were having fun and when we’re having fun we play our best tennis."
In his runner-up speech, Soares said, “First of all I want to thank my partner, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. It’s a great honor to play the finals here in Monte-Carlo against the No. 1 team in the world.” excerpted from ATP Staff, April 17, 2011.