Bryans Reach Milestone With Delray Beach Defence

© Morris FostoffThe Bryan twins defend their Delray Beach title.

Top-seeded Americans Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan took sole possession of the No. 2 spot on the list of Open Era doubles titles champions, after defending their title at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships with a 6-3, 7-6(3) win over German Philipp Marx and Slovakian Igor Zelenay on Sunday.

The Bryans’ 58th team title moved them ahead of Americans Peter Fleming and John McEnroe and South Africans Bob Hewitt and Frew McMillan, with each of those pairings winning 57 titles, and placed them just four back of Australians Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde’s record mark.

“It’s pretty cool to be on our own,” said Mike Bryan. “I’m sure they’re not going to get any easier. You feel a little more extra pressure because now everyone’s talking about it, we’re even thinking about it now. We’re in this final, we see this on paper, it’s a pretty good matchup for us ranking-wise, it’s just a good shot at a title. We want to break [the record].”

The 31-year-old American twins celebrated another milestone Saturday with their semi-final victory, becoming the first team in the Open Era to win 600 matches together. 

The Bryans broke Marx and Zelenay once from five chances in the opening set and fought off three break points faced on serve to close out the straight-sets win in 69 minutes. The Americans were contesting their third straight final at the ATP World Tour 250 hard-court tennis tournament, having reached the final in 2008 (l. to Mirnyi-J. Murray) and winning the title last year (d. Melo-Sa).

They improved to an 11-2 season mark with their second title of the year. After opening their 2010 campaign with a first-round loss at the Heineken Open, they came back strong to win their eighth Grand Slam title with victory over rivals Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic in the Australian Open final.

Mike Bryan said about chasing the all-time doubles titles record this season: “We’re going to try not to worry about it. We have goals to be No. 1, and to be No. 1 you have to win titles.”

In 2009, they clinched the ATP World Tour Doubles Champions title for the fifth time in seven years, tying Woodbridge and Woodforde for most year-end No. 1 finishes.

Marx and Zelenay were playing together for the third time on the ATP World Tour, with their best previous result a third-round showing at the Australian Open. The pair won two Challenger titles from four finals last year.