TENNIS in DEPTH.

Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan were crowned ATP World Tour Doubles Champions for the fifth time in seven years after defeating Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram 7-6(5), 6-3 to win the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals Sunday at The O2 in London.

For the second year in a row, the battle for the year-end No. 1 ATP Doubles Team Ranking came down to the last match of the season, with the Bryans needing to win the title to reclaim the crown they previously held in 2003 and ’05-07. Last year they lost out to Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic in a winner-take-all final at the season climax in Shanghai.

The Bryans came into the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals with only a slim chance of finishing No. 1 in the 2009 ATP Doubles Team Rankings. They trailed their rivals, Nestor and Zimonjic, by 830 points and had lost their past two matches on the ATP World Tour. The twins were ominously defeated by Mirnyi and Ram in their opening round-robin match, but hit back strongly and played what they later claimed was their best match of the year to clinch the title.

“It means so much,” said Bob Bryan. “It’s pretty much what we play for now. That’s the goal. Play well in the slams, but the ultimate goal is to finish No. 1. We felt like it was stolen from us last year. Now we kind of crept up on those guys and stole it from them this year. We feel like it’s a little bit of a payback.”

“To come full circle, do it in the last tournament, with so much riding on this one match, it’s huge,” agreed Mike Bryan. “We’re going to be talking about this match for the rest of our lives. There’s nothing sweeter than this.”

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