Bryans look to seal World Tour Finals semi-final spot against Matkowski/ Fyrstenberg
The top-seeded doubles pairing of Bob and Mike Bryan will take on the sixth seed pair of Marcin Matkowski and Mariusz Fyrstenberg in their second Group A clash at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals on Tuesday. The American duo leads Matkowski and Fyrstenberg
in their overall head-to-head series 10-5, including three previous straight sets wins.
Last year winners are the number one side for a record sixth time in the last eight seasons, and enjoy an 11-0 record in the finals.
The Americans started off their 2010 campaign by playing at the year’s first Grand Slam, the Australian Open in Melbourne. They did well to make their way into the final where they got the better of the pairing of Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic in a three
set clash to lift their fourth crown in Melbourne.
Bob Bryan along with his twin brother Mike Bryan won another title in Delray Beach just a month later. They clinched victory after overpowering Marx-Zelenay in the finals in straight sets. The two Americans, as a result of this victory, also became the first
doubles team in the Open Era to win six hundred matches on the ATP tour.
During the clay-court season, they continued their excellent form and successfully defended their crown in Houston, beating Huss-Moodie in the finals followed by another trophy in Rome. By virtue of their Rome victory, the number one pair from the United
States of America also leveled Woodbridge-Woodford’s record of 61 ATP tour crowns.
In the next two Grand Slam events, the duo however couldn’t perform up to the mark. At the French Open in Roland Garros, the Americans could not go beyond the second round. While at Wimbledon, they were knocked out in the quarter-finals.
The top ranked duo however once again regained their form and captured their sixth Los Angeles crown back in August as a result of three setter win over Butorac-Rojer. Just a week later, they made their way into the quarter-finals in Washington, before losing
to the Indo-Pak pairing of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul- Haq Qureshi.
A quarter-final exit in Washington, however didn’t stop them, as they later went on to win the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 trophy in Toronto thrashing Benneteau-Llodra in the final. Their impressive run of form continued in Cincinnati, where the Bryan brothers
were once again crowned champions.
At the year’s final major, the U.S. Open in New York, Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan picked up their ninth Grand Slam title and their third Flushing Meadows crown without dropping a set. They avenged their loss in Washington by defeating Qureshi-Bopanna in two
tie-break sets.
They are recently coming off the back of a semi-final appearance in Shanghai, where their twenty match winning streak was snapped by Paes-Melzer.
The Bryan brothers face the Polish pair of Matkowski and Fyrstenberg, who qualified for the ATP season-ending tournament for the fourth time in the last five seasons.
Seeded number six in London, Matkowski and Fyrstenberg did not start off their 2010 campaign ideally. However, they slowly gained momentum and won their only ATP World Tour crown of the season in Eastbourne after getting the better of Fleming-Skupski in
straight sets.
They struggled in their next six events with a record of 2-6, before they arrived at the year’s final Grand Slam, the U.S. Open. Matkowski along with Fyrstenberg made their way into the quarter-finals before losing to the American twins.
Last month, they stormed into four finals in a row. The pair was runner up in Kuala Lumpur, Beijing and Shanghai. Their final streak however ended with an opening round exit in Valencia.
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