Bob and Mike Bryan set Grand Slam record with U.S. Open win

NEW YORK — Bob and Mike Bryan, twins from Camarillo who early in life decided they’d rather play tennis together than try to beat each other in singles, set an Open-era Grand Slam record Friday by winning a 12th major doubles championship.

The second-seeded Bryans beat fifth-seeded Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek, 6-3, 6-4, at the U.S. Open and never once faced a break point. This summer the brothers also won an Olympic gold medal making this, career-wise, one of their happiest summers ever.

Bob brought his gold medal to show off Friday and said he thinks it is a good luck charm. The brothers also think winning at the Olympics, which they’d not done before, was a major pressure release.

“It did take pressure off,” Mike said. “We talked about it before each match. We’re like, ‘Let’s swing free. We have the gold now.’ We came into this a little fatigued and are just running on fumes a little.”

And the Bryans don’t get to rest yet. They leave for Spain on Monday to play a Davis Cup tie for the U.S. against Spain on clay.

Rainy days and Saturdays

The men’s semifinals will begin at 8 a.m. PDT Saturday instead of 9 a.m. because of a bad weather forecast.

Andy Murray, seeded third and coming off an emotional gold medal-winning Olympics, is still without a Grand Slam-level tournament victory and this might be his best chance. Murray got the scheduling break and will play first Saturday against sixth-seeded Tomas Berdych. Berdych upset top-seeded Roger Federer in the quarterfinals.

Defending champion and second-seeded Novak Djokovic will play fourth-seeded David Ferrer in the second match.

While it seems Murray should be the favorite, Berdych has a 4-2 career advantage including two wins on hard courts. Djokovic has the better of Ferrer, winning eight of 13 meetings including the last two, on hard courts in Miami and at the Australian Open.

“David is a fighter,” Djokovic said. “He’s one of the biggest competitors we have in the game. People don’t talk about him too much; they overlook him. But he is one of the most consistent players on the Tour.”

Ferrer, 30, has never been further than the semifinals of any major tournament, and he slipped into the fourth-seeded spot when his countryman Rafael Nadal, who is ranked third in the world, had to withdraw because of a knee injury that also kept Nadal out of the Olympics.

This is the first time since the 2004 French Open that neither Federer nor Nadal are in the semifinals of a major.

diane.pucin@latimes.com

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