Story highlights
Bob and Mike Bryan save match point to reach Australian Open doubles final
Bob's first child is due to be born on Saturday, the day of the final
The Bryan Brothers hoping to win a record 12th grand slam doubles title
Their opponents will be Indian Leander Paes and Czech Radek Stepanek
When Bob and Mike Bryan faced match point in their Australian Open men’s doubles semifinal, it wasn’t just the twin brothers who were feeling the strain.
Defeat on Thursday would have halted their bid for a record 12th grand slam title together, but they had a more pressing matter back home.
In Miami, Bob’s pregnant wife Michelle had to stop watching the American top seeds’ showdown with Robert Lindstedt of Sweden and Romania’s Horia Tecau because the stress was bringing on contractions.
“She turned it off in the third set because she was starting to feel a couple of small contractions,” Bob told reporters after the nailbiting 4-6 6-3 7-6 (7-5) victory over the seventh seeds.
“I’ve been telling her, ‘Don’t watch the matches, it will get your heart rate going and you might spit that baby out!’”
With the birth due on Saturday, Bob has banned the mother-to-be from watching the final against Indian doubles specialist Leander Paes and the Czech Republic’s Radek Stepanek.
“She’s on bedrest now,” the 33-year-old said. “She’s not getting out of bed. We’re down to the finish line. It’s crunch time.”
Bob will fly back to Miami on Sunday, hoping to have beaten the record he and his brother share with the legendary Australian doubles team of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde.
“We always have good chats with those guys,” Bob said of their relationship with the team known as “the Woodies.”
“I think Todd watched the end of our match. On the way to the locker room, he said, ‘That was an incredible reflex volley.’
“They’ve always seemed like they’ve been happy for us and our success. They seem very secure with their own achievements and career. They’ve had an amazingly decorated history on the court. They have nothing to fear.”
The Bryan brothers have topped the end-of-year rankings on a record seven occasions and have won over 700 matches together – an Open era best.
Paes, who has won six major doubles titles in his career, and Stepanek, a finalist alongside compatriot Jiri Novak at the 2002 U.S. Open, upset the odds to defeat second seeds Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Canada’s Daniel Nestor.
Mirnyi and Nestor, the 2011 French Open champions, took the first set before Stepanek and Paes rallied to win 2-6 6-4 6-4.
