It was looking like an embarrassment — the ultimate case of “Let your play do the talking.”
In the first match at Monday night’s BNP Paribas Showdown at the Garden, the world’s top-ranked doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan were up seven games to none on John and Patrick McEnroe and just points away from a whitewash.
However, the brothers McEnroe saved face, reeling off three consecutive games and having a break point to inch closer before the Bryans slammed the door to post an 8-3 victory.
“We were just starting to find our form,” Patrick joked on court after the match, referring to when he and his brother trailed 7-0.
The Bryans could have been forgiven if they wanted to make a statement, as John McEnroe had caused a stir in December when he said doubles should be abolished from the Grand Slams.
“Why we are even playing doubles at this point is a mystery to me,” McEnroe said, according to the London Telegraph.
“Most doubles players, I hate to say, are the slow guys who were not quick enough to play singles.”
Those comments were somewhat ironic, given that McEnroe had won 10 major titles in doubles — nine in the men’s competition and one in mixed doubles.
At a press conference Monday morning, Mike Bryan said there was no bad blood between the brothers.
“I mean, Johnny Mac has his opinions,” he said. “We have spoken about it. We really respect him and all he’s done for doubles and who he is as a person. … I’m going to say it pretty blatantly, it’s never fun reading that stuff but we’ve spoken about it and cleared the air.”
“Credit to those guys, John is 55 and I’m not sure how old Pat is but he’s a little younger [47],” Bob Bryan said after the match. “We are in midseason form, we [are] going to Indian Wells [Calif., the site of the next tournament] and I thought we played pretty good.”
The evening’s second match was a rematch of last year’s Wimbledon final, but with a different result, as the reigning champion, Andy Murray, fell to Novak Djokovic, 6-3, 7-6 (2).
Murray is just starting to ease back into form after he underwent surgery in late September to correct a back problem he had been having since the beginning of the 2012 season.
“The first few tournaments back were hard, but my body feels good now,” he said Monday morning. “Last week [in Acapulco, Mexico], I played four matches in four days for the first time [since the surgery]. I played three three-set matches — some long ones late in the evening. I woke up the next day feeling good for the first time, really, since the surgery, so I’m starting to recover properly.”