Bryans Asked For Downgrade to Fix Rankings Imbalance

Douglas Robson, Special for USA TODAY

MELBOURNE, Australia — It's almost unthinkable in tennis or any sport for a player to
ask for a voluntarily downgrade.

But that's exactly what the top-ranked Bryan brothers petitioned for late last season.

Little known to the American identical twins at the time, when Bob Bryan skipped the
USA's first-round Davis Cup tie against Switzerland last February to be at home
while his wife gave birth to their first child, it created a rankings imbalance.

Mike played with Mardy Fish in the USA's 5-0 win. The Bryans then teamed up to win
a point in American's quarterfinal victory against France.

In September, they learned that if they won their doubles match in the USA's Davis Cup
semifinal against Spain, Mike would nudge ahead and end the year No. 1. Bob would
drop to No. 2.

"It was a mathematical freak show," Mike Bryan said Friday at the Australian Open.

They won. And then they panicked.

Not only would they give up the chance to share the year-end No. 1 title, but also they would lose the opportunity to jointly hold the No. 1 ranking for 300 weeks — a threshold in singles Roger Federer achieved last fall to much fanfare.

"Federer got good press for hitting 300, and we were a couple weeks behind that," said lefthander Bob.

It's no surprise that the 34-year-old California natives, whose intertwined personal and professional lives are well documented, would want to maintain parity. Symmetry has been their winning system.

The most successful team of all time, they have tallied every significant milestone together: Olympic gold; a record-tying 12 Grand Slam titles; an unprecedented 83 tour titles; an unparalleled six years as the No. 1-ranked team.

"We wanted to keep the same weeks at No. 1 and year-end No. 1 finishes," Bob said. "Those were the two big records that we spent 15 years accumulating."

The brothers went into action. They contacted the ATP Tour leadership and Player Council. They convened a meeting at the ATP World Tour Championships in London and drew the support of all the top doubles players.

Their highly unusual plan was simple. Mike would willingly give up his extra Davis Cup ranking points. In essence, he would take one for the team.

"No one has ever asked to drop ranking points — and it will never happen again," Mike said.

A face-to-face meeting with ATP CEO Brad Drewett confirmed what they had been told: The rules would not be bent.

"Certainly for sentimental value we all supported the brothers," seventh-ranked Max Miryni of Belarus said Saturday. "But as a governing body, you can't set a precedent" even if no one but the Bryans would have been adversely affected, he said.

"Someone would say they were doing the Bryans a favor," lamented Mike. "That was the rationale."

They were upset. Bob didn't sleep for two nights.

"We just have to wait for the Davis Cup points to drop off," Mike said.

As it stands today, Mike has topped the rankings for 311 weeks, including a seventh year-end finish at No. 1 in 2012. Bob is stuck at 299.

On Sunday, they play Jeremy Chardy of France and Lukasz Kubot of Poland in the Australian Open's third round.

Their parallel universe will never be the same.

"It's over," Bob said. "I'm never going to catch him."