Bryan brothers tune up for Beijing with a win
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Bob and Mike Bryan tuned up for their second Olympics by posting a 4-6, 7-6 (2), 10-7 doubles victory on Sunday over Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram in the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati.
The 30-year-old Bryan twins reached the quarterfinals at the 2004 Athens Games, losing to eventual gold medalists Fernando Gonzalez and Nicolas Massu of Chile.
The Assn. of Tennis Professionals issued a news release with some thoughts from Beijing-bound Mike Bryan about the importance of Sunday’s win.
It’s a huge confidence boost and it’s our first title in a few months. In this tournament I think we played extremely well. Last week we lost in the finals, which was a positive also. So we’re going into the Olympics playing, I think, the best we have all year. To beat a great team like Andy and Jonathan, who have had a tremendous year, it bodes well. I mean, a huge goal of ours is to have a good performance at the Olympics. We’ve been looking forward to it all year. We’re going to take a week off and then give it our best shot.
In Athens, the twins joined the great-great-uncles of President George W. Bush as the only other brothers to play tennis for the United States in the Olympics. (Arthur and George Wear competed in the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis, with each winning a bronze medal with different doubles partners.)
-- Greg Johnson