Bryans win their last Davis Cup match to put U.S. in finals
HONOLULU (AP) Bob and Mike Bryan won the final Davis Cup match of their brilliant career to advance the United States into the final, beating Uzbekistan’s Sanjar Fayziev and Denis Istomin 6-3, 6-4 on Saturday.
The victory gave the United States an insurmountable 3-0 lead.
The Americans were the final team to earn a spot in the 18-country final in Madrid in November.
The Bryan twins plan to retire after the U.S. Open and don’t intend to play in the Davis Cup Finals.
They first played Davis Cup together in 2003 and helped the United States to its most recent title, in 2007. After stepping away from the team competition in 2018, the duo got a call from friend and former teammate Mardy Fish, now the U.S. captain, asking them to play.
"We're always happy to do our job and we treat these matches like huge Grand Slam matches," Mike Bryan said. "To clinch a tie? We've only had that opportunity a few times in our career. That felt really good. You don't get to run around with the flag on court at home very often.
"To leave our Davis Cup career with that memory, that highlights, it's awesome."
The brothers took a 5-0 lead before closing out the first set in 30 minutes.
They broke to start set two and never looked back.
After winning the match in 1 hour, 5 minutes, they did one of their classic jumping chest bumps.
The United States has 32 Davis Cup titles, the most of any team, but is in its longest title drought. Last year, the Americans didn’t make it out of the group stages in Madrid.
World No. 24 Taylor Fritz and No. 38 Reilly Opelka gave the United States a 2-0 advantage on Friday, with wins over Fayziev and Istomin, respectively.
The brothers are the most successful doubles team in Davis Cup history, winning 25 matches across 15 years.
"We've played some of the most important matches of our lives in Davis Cup," Bob Bryan said. "We always felt like the Davis Cup crowds could carry us. We played some great tennis. These are the matches we’ll remember… sometimes the losses more than the wins because we let down our team. Today was a great way to end this part of our career."