Speaker 1: We all play a little bit of music. Just tell
Speaker 1: me how important you think that it's. When we grew up,
Speaker 1: we didn't have TV in our house, which opens up
Speaker 1: a lot of hours, so we were lucky enough to
Speaker 1: be enriched by music. My dad was in a band.
Speaker 1: We had all the instruments set up in our living room.
Speaker 1: Most you finished with the stuff in the tournament, you
Speaker 1: go back to your hotels. Do you actually spend time
Speaker 1: as well together or you tried to do your own stuff.
Speaker 1: I think we're happiest when we're together because we have
Speaker 1: such a close bond. I think twins have this unique
Speaker 1: um closeness that normal cytlings don't have. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: the mixed doubles here for a little bit, and I
Speaker 1: have a question. You want elevel and grandsom tafles altogether combined.
Speaker 1: You never played with me, I never got asked. I
Speaker 1: got beached by you a lot, though. I remember my
Speaker 1: first Grand Stamp final was against you. I think you're
Speaker 1: probably seventeen. All right, let's go for this. Well, guys,
Speaker 1: last time we saw each other was San Diego, right,
Speaker 1: a couple of months ago. Well, who would have thought
Speaker 1: we would be in this situation? Right now. But it
Speaker 1: seems like you've both been quite busy, right, Um, what
Speaker 1: have you up to lately? It's been a busy time
Speaker 1: for me. I had a baby a month ago, so
Speaker 1: that's been really exciting. A little baby, some Slovakian roots. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna be spending some time in Slovakia. Come
Speaker 1: see the grandma. Um, yeah, and we can hang out.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's been it's been fun. Yeah, a lot
Speaker 1: of diaper changes late nights, but yeah, it's been good.
Speaker 1: That is amazing news. Actually, after Indian wells, I got
Speaker 1: stuck in California because I got a little sick. My
Speaker 1: wife got a little sick, so we kind of quarantined
Speaker 1: in a hotel. Um, we got tested. It was negative,
Speaker 1: but we didn't want to travel, so we stayed next
Speaker 1: to Mike at an air being be for ten weeks. Uh.
Speaker 1: Fortunately we got to see the birth of his first child,
Speaker 1: which was awesome. Got to spend time with the grandparents,
Speaker 1: our folks who we haven't seen much over the last
Speaker 1: twenty three years, you know, just days here and there.
Speaker 1: So that was nice. I don't think we'll probably ever
Speaker 1: get to do that again, especially me being not in Miami,
Speaker 1: So it was a blessing in disguise for us. Was
Speaker 1: that probably the most wonderful thing, being able to not
Speaker 1: to travel and spending quality time with your families. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I look at this as a negative, and I know
Speaker 1: Mike feels the same way. He We're gonna play Houston.
Speaker 1: That was the week before the birth of his baby,
Speaker 1: and he got to spend that time with Nadia and
Speaker 1: really help her and support her during a time a
Speaker 1: time of anxiety. You know, the first babies not not easy,
Speaker 1: but they made it look easy. But Mike was there
Speaker 1: to help her out, which was nice. Mike, how much
Speaker 1: has your life change over the last couple of months
Speaker 1: and how much sleep have you been really getting. It's
Speaker 1: been a total change. I've actually been getting decent sleep
Speaker 1: because Nadia has got a breastfeed at night, so I
Speaker 1: can go into the other room, but I come in
Speaker 1: the morning and I take about three or four hours
Speaker 1: in the morning let her take a nap. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's not about me anymore. It's it's about the baby.
Speaker 1: I can see how hard it was for Bob having
Speaker 1: three kids on the road and trying to play tennis.
Speaker 1: It's it's a full time job. When you have a baby,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's but it's it's the best experience
Speaker 1: in the world. I was there during the birth. She
Speaker 1: did an all natural birth, which was you gotta give
Speaker 1: her credit. She she took some pain, because most people
Speaker 1: like to drug up these days, but she she did
Speaker 1: it all natural. The Slovaki in a way. I was
Speaker 1: just gonna say, the Slovakian power. So send my best
Speaker 1: to Nadia as well, and my congrets. Uh talking about
Speaker 1: giving credits, how about the kitchen and cooking skills? How
Speaker 1: much more credit are you giving your wife's now realizing
Speaker 1: that maybe a little bit easy right now, it's it's not. Um,
Speaker 1: I stepped it up a little bit. I've learned how
Speaker 1: to use all the pots in the pants and some spices,
Speaker 1: and you know, baking cookies and muffins. My job has
Speaker 1: been breakfast in the morning, so I've been getting up early.
Speaker 1: I've been making Michelle coffee and me getting the breakfast started,
Speaker 1: whether it's pancakes or eggs um. And I know Mike's
Speaker 1: been been making all three meals a day for Nadia,
Speaker 1: so he's his game is a little sharper than mine.
Speaker 1: But I'm a good breakfast guy. Yeah, yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: been fun though we're I've been kind of thrown into
Speaker 1: the fire and uh it's kind of like I had
Speaker 1: to step up or no one eats because Nadia is
Speaker 1: so busy with the baby. That I've looked on YouTube,
Speaker 1: I've I've found a lot of recipes and now baking.
Speaker 1: I'm making steak and making everything you know from from breakfast, lunch, dinner.
Speaker 1: So it's it's been good. And uh, Bob, you guys
Speaker 1: did a good little cooking video on Instagram that was
Speaker 1: that was pretty cool. Yeah, yeah, we I think we
Speaker 1: made a Spanish tortilla. I was watching that and it
Speaker 1: made me wanna try one right away. I haven't had
Speaker 1: the time for it, but I will thanks to you guys.
Speaker 1: All right, okay, let's go from kitchen now to what
Speaker 1: we see behind you. There's few guitars, piano, we all
Speaker 1: play a little bit of music. Just tell me how
Speaker 1: important you think that is, um and the benefit we
Speaker 1: had when we were growing up that our parents we're
Speaker 1: all about, you know, doing different things, not only having
Speaker 1: to focus on sports, and how much you want to
Speaker 1: apply that to your kids as well. Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1: Go ahead when we When we grew up, we didn't
Speaker 1: have TV in our house, which opens up a lot
Speaker 1: of hours. Um, you know, my kids we have tablets,
Speaker 1: we have TV streaming. There's a lot of hours chewed
Speaker 1: up by kind of mindless activities. So we're lucky enough
Speaker 1: to be enriched by music. My dad was in a band.
Speaker 1: We had all the instruments set up in our living room.
Speaker 1: We would play tennis, come home instead of watching TV,
Speaker 1: which we didn't have. We do our homework and then
Speaker 1: play music. Mike and I have really fallen in love
Speaker 1: with it. We've probably spent more hours playing music than
Speaker 1: we have tennis, which is which is wild. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to claim to be a better musician than a
Speaker 1: tennis player, but you know, it's something I'm doing right now.
Speaker 1: My daughter loves it. She's playing a lot of Taylor
Speaker 1: Swift songs. Our little boys playing drums. He's six years old. Um.
Speaker 1: So as a family, it's been great to come together.
Speaker 1: My mom plays bass, my dad plays everything out in California,
Speaker 1: and we're playing four hours a day. As a family.
Speaker 1: It was great to share that time together. I know
Speaker 1: Mike uh, he jams on his guitar all day long.
Speaker 1: He's gonna want to get a little baby take. And
Speaker 1: I know, Danny, you're you're a classical pianist. Um, you
Speaker 1: grew up with that. I'm not formally trained. I've learned
Speaker 1: most of my stuff on YouTube and just been listening
Speaker 1: to songs and trying to figure them out. I would
Speaker 1: love to go to the route you you went, you know,
Speaker 1: went out to read learn more technique. But right now
Speaker 1: I'm just a jammer. Yeah, it's fun. We uh, it's
Speaker 1: a big part of our life. It's a great balance
Speaker 1: because we always bring our instruments on the road, So
Speaker 1: Bob and I are jamming in hotel rooms and it's
Speaker 1: a great outlet for stress because you can be at
Speaker 1: the courts all day worried about your matches and your practice.
Speaker 1: You come back to your room, you kind of unplugged,
Speaker 1: and you plug in the instruments. And it's been great
Speaker 1: for Bob and I because we have this communication in music,
Speaker 1: and a lot of times it carries onto the courts
Speaker 1: and our chemistry goes from the music right into the
Speaker 1: matches and there's a great correlation there. I think it's
Speaker 1: it's good for the brain. So I'm gonna have Jake
Speaker 1: play music because I think it I don't know what
Speaker 1: it does with blood flow or synapsis, but I think
Speaker 1: it's great for cognition for for kids. My mom seventy
Speaker 1: five or seventy three, and she just started playing the bass. Uh,
Speaker 1: so she's she's learning the base and she's playing every
Speaker 1: day and she's just having a blast. So I think
Speaker 1: it's just a great part of your life because I mean,
Speaker 1: we stressed our bodies so much, but music you can
Speaker 1: do all day and it's not it's not a stressful thing,
Speaker 1: so it actually relaxes you. So we we love it.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad you mentioned the point, um, how much
Speaker 1: we are able to just unplug, And it seems like
Speaker 1: whenever we sit behind the piano or with the guitar,
Speaker 1: like you forget that you are a tennis player and
Speaker 1: you completely forget the matches and it just helps you
Speaker 1: dial it in into into the music. And I think
Speaker 1: it's such a great tool for any young kids, um,
Speaker 1: just to have that part of their lives as well.
Speaker 1: And I think, um, you know, like you guys mentioned
Speaker 1: family with the music in the piction, you are such
Speaker 1: a wonderful examples that being a professional tennis player or
Speaker 1: athlete in general, you can still have um those you know,
Speaker 1: normal things in life. And thanks for showing that how
Speaker 1: it's done to proper way to appreciated being such a
Speaker 1: wonderful and sitters of our sapor. Yeah. I think it's
Speaker 1: good for all kids to play an instrument and as sport,
Speaker 1: you know sport exercise. The body works on the cardio
Speaker 1: keeps you in shape, but the music really activates that
Speaker 1: creative part of the brain. UM. And you've probably seen
Speaker 1: those studies. When you're playing piano or guitar, all parts
Speaker 1: of your brain are lighting up. So it's really good
Speaker 1: for kids, um to activate the synapsis, especially when you're young.
Speaker 1: Talking about the communication you have between yourselves and as
Speaker 1: you mentioned, um, it transfers from music to tennis. How
Speaker 1: was it or how is it still during the tournaments
Speaker 1: for you because you spend so much time on the court,
Speaker 1: in the practice, in the matches. Once the you finish
Speaker 1: with the stuff in the tournament, you go back to
Speaker 1: your hotels, do you actually spend time as well together
Speaker 1: or you try to do your own stuff. I think
Speaker 1: we're happiest when we're together because we have such a
Speaker 1: close bond. I think twins have this unique um looseness
Speaker 1: that normal siblings don't have. So we love spending time together.
Speaker 1: You know, when I'm doing something fun in California, I'm
Speaker 1: usually calling Bob and I want to feel him in
Speaker 1: So it's almost like we're one soul. We're so connected
Speaker 1: that you know, when things are going well on the court,
Speaker 1: it's like we're an unstoppable freight train and our momentum
Speaker 1: and our energy is so strong and teams can feel that.
Speaker 1: But like if I carry some baggage onto the court,
Speaker 1: it actually seeps into Bob's energy. He can he can
Speaker 1: actually feel me so closely that if I'm a little
Speaker 1: bit negative in my personal life or something, that actually
Speaker 1: brings him down. So um. But I mean, I I
Speaker 1: love for him to move back to California. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to convince him to actually get a place out here.
Speaker 1: I know, I think you have a place out here
Speaker 1: in California. But we got to convince him that West
Speaker 1: Coast is the way to go. Come on, Bob, like
Speaker 1: you haven't still figured that out? Like really, I mean, look,
Speaker 1: it's it's West Coast. I love it. You know, a
Speaker 1: California boy at heart, um, my wife and our whole
Speaker 1: families here in Miami. It's tough. They have cousins now,
Speaker 1: they have a cousin on the West coast, will definitely
Speaker 1: be spending summers there get out of the heat. Um.
Speaker 1: But we I mean, like Mike said, we're the happiest
Speaker 1: when we're together. We'd love to be jamming in the
Speaker 1: music suit your whole life, you know, playing tens, doing
Speaker 1: doing stuff with the families together, talking about being together
Speaker 1: and being identical twins. Have you ever used that in
Speaker 1: your advantage, Like maybe you didn't feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: doing that interview or going on the date or doing
Speaker 1: that exam it's cool. Yeah, I mean we don't. We
Speaker 1: didn't really switch too much in school. Um, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, look, we split up the homework growing up.
Speaker 1: You know I would do the math and the English.
Speaker 1: I'd usually do both subjects, which is how I was
Speaker 1: the bad guy. So but yeah, I mean the same
Speaker 1: thing with work emails. You know, you respond to this,
Speaker 1: we can split up, which is it's good to have,
Speaker 1: you know, personal secretary Mike spling distance. Yeah, but I
Speaker 1: think we're always a package deal. People view us as
Speaker 1: kind of one entity. So when when Bob was doing
Speaker 1: well in singles, They're like, great job, guys, And I
Speaker 1: felt like I was taking credit. And I think in
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eighteen, while I was winning a
Speaker 1: few tournaments without him, when he was having hip surgery,
Speaker 1: he was kind of taking some pride. Okay, the Brian's
Speaker 1: are are doing it, so people kind of vieus as one. Um,
Speaker 1: so we gotta maybe developed that our own identity moving forward.
Speaker 1: But whatever we we'd like to roll with it. Alright. Well,
Speaker 1: let's say a little bit about Roland Garros. What is
Speaker 1: the thing that he most missed the most about not
Speaker 1: being in Paris at the moment. Well, Paris is just
Speaker 1: a great place. We stayed near the Shan's Lise, you know,
Speaker 1: in a in a small Paris apartment. We walked the streets.
Speaker 1: We go to the Bakeriries. We obviously love the croissants
Speaker 1: were gluten free now but you can find the gluten
Speaker 1: free croissant. It's where my wife and I fell in love. Uh.
Speaker 1: We went biking. We had so many great meals. We
Speaker 1: walked down the river there. Um, so great memories there.
Speaker 1: It's our first Grand Slam win. Um. We kind of
Speaker 1: have this big monkey on our back. We've been playing
Speaker 1: on the tour for five years. Frustration had been building,
Speaker 1: and then it all came together in a two week
Speaker 1: kind of a beautiful run for us, which gave us
Speaker 1: confidence to go on and have a great career. Um.
Speaker 1: The Jensens won it in We looked up to them.
Speaker 1: We thought they were the coolest guys out there. Um.
Speaker 1: They kind of inspired us, as well as Ricky Leach
Speaker 1: and some other American doubles players to play doubles. Um.
Speaker 1: Then yeah, we want to know three ten years later,
Speaker 1: which launched us so awesome memories from Paris. It's actually
Speaker 1: been our toughest Grand Slam to win, even though it
Speaker 1: was our first. Um, we've had many a sticky match there.
Speaker 1: We've had awesome results, but not always we've gotten over
Speaker 1: the finish line as victors. It's it's really uh, it's
Speaker 1: an equalizing surface and a lot of the great singles
Speaker 1: players can play really good doubles on clay because it
Speaker 1: slows it down and their groundstrokes are very dangerous, as
Speaker 1: you know, UM on a slower surface. So UM, we've
Speaker 1: lost a lot of tight matches there, but we've had
Speaker 1: a lot of beautiful moments. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and we're
Speaker 1: missing being in rolling Garrols right now obviously. Uh, the
Speaker 1: amazing improvements last year kind of blew our minds how
Speaker 1: they expanded the grounds, added stadium and added kind of
Speaker 1: an underground city under the whole site. And I think
Speaker 1: they kind of improve their facility more than any other
Speaker 1: Grand Slam. Um. You know the practice facility, John Juan
Speaker 1: is just it is just beautiful. Um. So it's so cool.
Speaker 1: A Bob stayed there last year. Last year we had bikes,
Speaker 1: we're riding around. I think we have those little segues. Um,
Speaker 1: it's a really fun uh time. So we're really missing.
Speaker 1: Hopefully we can come back in September. Um if we're
Speaker 1: still playing. And got talked to Bob he still wants
Speaker 1: to play here, but um, yeah we're we love to
Speaker 1: come back one last time. Um. Talking about playing on clay,
Speaker 1: how much over the years you felt like you had
Speaker 1: to adjust the game for the surface or you were
Speaker 1: not really concerned about that and you just went for
Speaker 1: the usual being aggressive and all that. Well, as a team,
Speaker 1: we love clay. It's easy on the body. You can
Speaker 1: practice six hours a day not be sore, and for us,
Speaker 1: we liked it because we could We felt like we
Speaker 1: couldn't get served off the court. We felt like we
Speaker 1: get into the point and use our skills. We like
Speaker 1: our groundstrokes, we like our variety. Mike's got a great
Speaker 1: drop shot bali um, so we had very consistent results
Speaker 1: on clay um, just because we felt like we couldn't
Speaker 1: get served off the court by you know, a six
Speaker 1: six European guy who could come in and hit ACEIs.
Speaker 1: We felt like we could get in the point and
Speaker 1: use our skills. Um. But like I said, a lot
Speaker 1: of teams aren't necessarily great. Grass borders or hardcores are
Speaker 1: good clay court players because they have the huge fourrand
Speaker 1: because they move well. Clay court points and doubles are
Speaker 1: a lot longer than than the fast court services. So um,
Speaker 1: there are a lot more dangerous teams. And the French
Speaker 1: Open double straw always had the most upsets, as you know, Danny,
Speaker 1: like you could lose fourteen of the sixteen seeds in
Speaker 1: the first two rounds, so you had a lot of
Speaker 1: weird winners. You know, you had the least rocus super
Speaker 1: talented team. They had never done anything they won. The
Speaker 1: French had quevas and Horna who beat us in the quarterfinals.
Speaker 1: They never did anything, but they won the French So
Speaker 1: um a lot of a lot of weird champions, but
Speaker 1: deserving champions because they have those other skills. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: is a neutralizer. We'd like to think we're kind of
Speaker 1: a wallet net. But you can stick a voli deep
Speaker 1: and then the clay slows it down, and then top
Speaker 1: singles players waiting with a big point and they have
Speaker 1: a lot options from the ground. They can lobby, they
Speaker 1: can dip you. So you have to use more variety.
Speaker 1: As Bob said, you have to use the drop volley.
Speaker 1: You have to actually we try to expose a bad
Speaker 1: volure Like at net. We feel like if we turn
Speaker 1: up the line and then we kind of attacked the
Speaker 1: neck guy and not get into these long baseline rallies
Speaker 1: with the top singles player, that's our you know, our
Speaker 1: best advantage. But as Bob said, we struggled a little bit.
Speaker 1: You know, we've I think we've lost a few finals
Speaker 1: where we've been up a break in the third and
Speaker 1: five finals. We've lost five finals. And so even though
Speaker 1: we love we love the dirt, it's harder to actually
Speaker 1: serve out a match when the nerves go and you
Speaker 1: miss a couple of first serves and then you're digging
Speaker 1: out a half allays at your feet and then they're
Speaker 1: setting up with you know, groundstrokes. So it is. It
Speaker 1: has been the toughest one on us, but we still
Speaker 1: like to get dirty. Well it's such a great point, you, Megan.
Speaker 1: I never thought about it, but it's so true that
Speaker 1: probably the most unpredictable nurse in slams it's always come doubles.
Speaker 1: And in yeah, yeah, yeah, we played uh we played
Speaker 1: a horna and who it was? Horna and who was
Speaker 1: We played them and it was raining, so it slowed
Speaker 1: down and they were ripping groundstrokes. I think we were
Speaker 1: the only match on the court still playing and everyone
Speaker 1: cleared off because they went inside and we're like, let's
Speaker 1: finish this thing and they just had too much ziz
Speaker 1: on the ball and we end up losing six and
Speaker 1: the third. They went on to win the title. Um so,
Speaker 1: but they didn't win too many terms after that, so
Speaker 1: they're kind of like a one hit wonder. But that's
Speaker 1: what happens in the French, you know, like weird things
Speaker 1: happened when you know, the balls just slower and you
Speaker 1: guys can use their their grass skills. Guys, just quickly,
Speaker 1: because I would not have a clue because I never
Speaker 1: really practice it. But if you can tell our listeners
Speaker 1: some quick tips how to become a good doubles player,
Speaker 1: what the would be? Well, you know, luckily we compliment
Speaker 1: each other really well. Um, I've been known to have
Speaker 1: a little bit bigger serve and I hold serve more
Speaker 1: more often Mike. Mike doesn't want to admit it, Mike,
Speaker 1: Mike's a great Mike's a great returner, so he he
Speaker 1: keeps us in the return games, you know, especially in
Speaker 1: the three all format. Sometimes I don't win a point
Speaker 1: on return and we break. Uh, so we have this compliment,
Speaker 1: you know, big serve, good return. Um. We're lefty righty team,
Speaker 1: which is great. You know, we don't have to serve
Speaker 1: in the sun. We can use the cross breeze to
Speaker 1: our advantage. But as far as a tip, I mean,
Speaker 1: as you guys know, I think first certain percentage is
Speaker 1: a lot more valuable in doubles. We've we've tracked our
Speaker 1: matches and when we're winning big tournaments, before we were
Speaker 1: winning slams, we're serving about se um if you miss
Speaker 1: the first serve in doubles, you get really hurt. Um
Speaker 1: if you win half of those points on your second serve,
Speaker 1: you're doing amazing. Because with the rackets, the technology to
Speaker 1: spin the great returning, it's hard to dig out the
Speaker 1: first bolling and win that point. So you want to
Speaker 1: make a lot of first serves. So we're using a
Speaker 1: lot of body serves. UM. It's taking out the wide errors.
Speaker 1: So we're going into the tight to the body, which
Speaker 1: which handcuffs singles players and they're not used to the
Speaker 1: body serve and it's very hard when you're handcuffed to
Speaker 1: get the ball cross court out of the middle. So
Speaker 1: we're using that a lot. And I think as you've
Speaker 1: seen the game UM evolve over the years, players are
Speaker 1: getting very close to the net now UM they're using
Speaker 1: the geometry to their advantage. It's a lot easier to
Speaker 1: hit a volley when you're when you're three inches from
Speaker 1: the net than when you're at the service line. So
Speaker 1: players are playing iye formation. We don't love that formation.
Speaker 1: Were traditional doubles team, but it's evolved into an eye formation.
Speaker 1: Very disruptive formations and there's a lot more strategy than
Speaker 1: there was probably thirty years ago. Yeah, yeah, I agree, Like, uh,
Speaker 1: the game's evolved, and I think we were the first
Speaker 1: team to really kind of attack the net and get
Speaker 1: all over the net and get close and put always
Speaker 1: away and play that power game. And now I think
Speaker 1: everyone's caught up to us and everyone's really tight and
Speaker 1: they're playing that I formation. So I think you've got
Speaker 1: to work on your upper line return and you've got
Speaker 1: to be aggressive with with the return. If you can
Speaker 1: hit the alley on the return, it's usually good. That
Speaker 1: will be an eye. Um. And then I think you
Speaker 1: have two lob now because guys who are so close
Speaker 1: that you have to keep them honest, You have to
Speaker 1: keep keep them on their back foot. So I never
Speaker 1: used to chip lob return in my whole life until
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, and uh there's been terments
Speaker 1: or I use it half the time. It works, you know,
Speaker 1: if you can chip it over there and then you
Speaker 1: can neutralize the point instead of having someone put a
Speaker 1: volley away. So that's good. Um. I also recommend you know,
Speaker 1: you gotta poach, you gotta be aggressive. As you know,
Speaker 1: I think Bob is one of the big poachers of
Speaker 1: the game, and on the big points, he flies across
Speaker 1: the middle and he kind of like looks for the ball.
Speaker 1: You know, you can't be scared scared of the ball.
Speaker 1: You actually gotta go after it and be aggressive. In doubles,
Speaker 1: I think it's such a great point you make about
Speaker 1: the first serve percentage, because that's that's just you, especially
Speaker 1: on clay and doubles, and I think just it's a
Speaker 1: different conversation between UH, men's doubles and woman's doubles, because
Speaker 1: woman's doubles the idea is okay, doesn't better. Where are
Speaker 1: you gonna hit the surf? Just hit it over the
Speaker 1: net and make sure it's a first surf in because
Speaker 1: that's gonna be in trouble. Yeah, yeah, exactly a lot
Speaker 1: more free points in the men's game on the surf. UM,
Speaker 1: so big serves actually do matter, especially at wimblin UM.
Speaker 1: I've had some good, good years where I haven't lost
Speaker 1: serve in Wimberland just because I have the lefty lefty
Speaker 1: cutter like you use the y one. A lot of
Speaker 1: players aren't used to seeing that spin. But yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: the men's games starting to look more like the women's game.
Speaker 1: UM on the w t A. You know, a lot
Speaker 1: of the girls servants stay back, and that's been transitioning
Speaker 1: to the men's game as well. You know, you have
Speaker 1: I would say half the guys are are hitting a
Speaker 1: big serve but staying back and using their forehand. Um,
Speaker 1: they don't need the volley anymore because their forehands is
Speaker 1: almost as big as a serf. So I think there's
Speaker 1: just some exciting contrasts in doubles right now because you
Speaker 1: still have some of the double specialists that are beating
Speaker 1: you up with cutting me up, and then you have
Speaker 1: the big artillery from Zehrev's and the big singles players.
Speaker 1: So it's fun. It's fun to watch, I think of
Speaker 1: the fans. Yeah, yeah, I mean the technology of the
Speaker 1: game is increased so much that the return is so
Speaker 1: aggressive and there's so much spin on the return, and
Speaker 1: so yeah, these guys are getting to return down their
Speaker 1: fire at your feet. So the best option, I mean,
Speaker 1: Bob's doing it a lot now in the accord where
Speaker 1: he serves and then waits for a forehand and he
Speaker 1: can be aggressive and try to get in then. But
Speaker 1: sometimes it's not the best option serving bowling anymore. It's
Speaker 1: it's just the games improved, the technology and strings, whatever
Speaker 1: it is, it's just not the best option. Um, let's
Speaker 1: talk about the mixed doubles here for a little bit.
Speaker 1: And I have a question. Yeah, you want to eleven
Speaker 1: and grand some tackles altogether combined. You never played with me.
Speaker 1: I never got asked. I got by a lot though.
Speaker 1: I remember my first round sound final was against you.
Speaker 1: I think you're probably seventeen, and you're playing with Leo Spritel.
Speaker 1: That was at Wimbledon, and I'm like, all right, I've
Speaker 1: never heard of this girl. I've never, you know, really
Speaker 1: heard of Leo s friedl. I'm like, we got this thing.
Speaker 1: This is gonna be our first Grand Slam. I was
Speaker 1: playing with legal humor and I'm like, damn, this girl
Speaker 1: has got some talent. And you just you took over.
Speaker 1: Usually it comes down to the girl. And I think
Speaker 1: you're just rock solid making every return um, and you
Speaker 1: you blew my mind. It seems like I was never
Speaker 1: good enough for you to like we play. Over the years,
Speaker 1: we would have jumped at an opportunity to play with you.
Speaker 1: You will say that now I felt like I was
Speaker 1: never good enough. Literally, you won the career Grand Slam
Speaker 1: in the mix we both came up one short. We
Speaker 1: never won the Aussie We just retired from the Australia
Speaker 1: up and we'll never have a chance to do it.
Speaker 1: If you would have asked this, we would have played
Speaker 1: for sure, UM. But we're telling we never. We never
Speaker 1: planned out our mixed UM kind of year. We would
Speaker 1: show up, you know, grab someone last minute. UM. You know,
Speaker 1: I know a lot of players are are locked and loaded,
Speaker 1: they have a partner for the whole year. We never really,
Speaker 1: we never really did that UM. And then later in
Speaker 1: our career we stopped playing UM as the body started
Speaker 1: to ache a little more. We uh, we wanted to
Speaker 1: rest for the doubles. But mixed we had some a
Speaker 1: lot of fun times over the year. I got to
Speaker 1: play with Martina when she was forty nine years old
Speaker 1: and her last Grand Slam UM. And then our first
Speaker 1: Grand Slam final was against each other in the O
Speaker 1: two U s Open. Mike and Lisa Raymond beat me
Speaker 1: in Trebotnick. That was our first case of a Grand
Speaker 1: stump final, which I felt helped us tremendously going into
Speaker 1: our doubles finals. We got to see it from a
Speaker 1: mixed double's point of view. First, how how weird must
Speaker 1: that have been? It wasn't the only time you played
Speaker 1: against each other. No, No, we played in uh I
Speaker 1: think it was a two thousand and eight Wimbledon final.
Speaker 1: It was. We were scheduled after Federer and then doll
Speaker 1: and there was that epic final that went into the darkness.
Speaker 1: They ended up switching us to court one. We played
Speaker 1: with zero people in the crowd, just the ushers, and
Speaker 1: we heard the stadium court was a eruptian the most
Speaker 1: dramatic match ever. And then they finished their final in
Speaker 1: darkness and we were just starting the second set. We
Speaker 1: couldn't see the ball um. But because Mike and I
Speaker 1: were on the same flight the next day, we're like, hey, man,
Speaker 1: let's let's get this done. You know, at the time,
Speaker 1: we're sharing our money, so we're like, everyone's a winner here,
Speaker 1: let's just play and and we we went for it
Speaker 1: and they couldn't return. We're up a break, so me
Speaker 1: and Stowes are one, and then as kind of carm
Speaker 1: I I raised the trophy up in the lid, came off,
Speaker 1: the trophy hit me on the head. Laugh. But it
Speaker 1: was it was weird, but it was always kind of
Speaker 1: a happy moment for us to be in the finals together.
Speaker 1: We're like, hey, one, Brian's gonna win this title. You know,
Speaker 1: everyone's a winner here. M Yeah, it was. It was fun.
Speaker 1: I mean Bob. Bob was a really dominant mixed player
Speaker 1: because he just went full usually the girl he would
Speaker 1: still I mean, third one forty and he didn't mind,
Speaker 1: he didn't mind bringing hot into the body and he
Speaker 1: didn't take anything off. And so you're very respectful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would go for the for the body. I would,
Speaker 1: I would, you know, I go around him, but hard.
Speaker 1: You're brutal guys. Now, I know you've said, Um, this
Speaker 1: was going to be your last season. Um, did plans
Speaker 1: change because of everything? Maybe it's not off the table
Speaker 1: that we we could come back. We got to see
Speaker 1: how we're feeling. Um, you know, like right now, the
Speaker 1: bodies and the minds feel really fresh. We feel like
Speaker 1: we would maybe have enough in the tank to go
Speaker 1: and play another year. Um. We had a great start
Speaker 1: to the year. We felt like we we gotta say
Speaker 1: some goodbyes and it was fun playing again on tour
Speaker 1: because we didn't play since the US open. Um. We
Speaker 1: would love to play, you know, the French one last
Speaker 1: time when you know, when bleed in the US Open.
Speaker 1: But it might not be in the cards. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: life never has a perfect script, you know, so we
Speaker 1: just got to talk about it, you know, and see
Speaker 1: where we're at. You know, we're still waiting on the
Speaker 1: US Open right now. If that happens at the end
Speaker 1: of August, you know, that could be our farewell. Just
Speaker 1: gonna reevaluate, you know. You know when we hear the news, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, look, we got we got World Team Tennis
Speaker 1: is actually just announced, you know, ten minutes ago that
Speaker 1: they're gonna have a season. So that's gonna be at
Speaker 1: the Greenbrier in West Virginia. They're gonna have all the teams.
Speaker 1: I think there's nine teams. They're gonna come together in
Speaker 1: one city. So we're gonna play three weeks um during that,
Speaker 1: which is gonna I think you played. I think you
Speaker 1: played Team Tennis, right, is that correct? I think the
Speaker 1: same team of course we played together. I think it's
Speaker 1: great for dealing with pressure, it's great for for working
Speaker 1: on the game, and it's a good springboard to the summer.
Speaker 1: So if there is a U s Open, I think
Speaker 1: that the World Team Tennisse season will help us get
Speaker 1: back up to speed because during quarantine, and I think
Speaker 1: everyone's gotten a little soft. Um during quarantine, we haven't
Speaker 1: hit the most balls. We've been working out, but I've
Speaker 1: been playing more music than tennis. But this will give
Speaker 1: us a like a goal to to start working towards,
Speaker 1: because as athletes, it's nice to have goals. We've always
Speaker 1: had goals. This is this is the one time in
Speaker 1: our life that we really haven't had anything on the horizon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: talking about being sharp and having goals. I think that's
Speaker 1: what World Team Tennis does too, because it's so intense.
Speaker 1: And I think it was also the time that actually
Speaker 1: I saw you guys for the very first time doing
Speaker 1: all your doubles drills, and I just I was blown
Speaker 1: away and I had right away hundred times more appreciation
Speaker 1: how much effort you put in and those drills. I
Speaker 1: mean when the coach was like hitting the balls as fast,
Speaker 1: like spread into your face, I was like, There's no
Speaker 1: way I could last two seconds of that. Yeah. Keep sharp, Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're talking about being sharp and discipline. It's something that
Speaker 1: I've been asking all my guests, Um, how important do
Speaker 1: you think having the routines, having the discipline that as
Speaker 1: a tennis players, when we put mind into something. We
Speaker 1: saw it with both of you in the kitchen with
Speaker 1: the music, with the sports. What kind of message would
Speaker 1: you have for people listening to us and how important
Speaker 1: that is during these times to get through. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I think when we put our minds something we really
Speaker 1: go after. And you need daily routines and habits. And
Speaker 1: you know, when we have goals, when you when you
Speaker 1: can see those goals off in the future, your it
Speaker 1: actually gets you out of bed, gets you going. So
Speaker 1: you know, like this morning, I've already gone to the gym.
Speaker 1: I know team chance is gonna happen. So I have
Speaker 1: I love my morning routine. I think, you know, I
Speaker 1: do this before everyone gets out of bed, before the
Speaker 1: baby wakes up, you know. I I do my you
Speaker 1: know hour in the gym. You know, I take care
Speaker 1: of the body. You know, I can do a meditation,
Speaker 1: you know. So I think, you know, we've learned these skills.
Speaker 1: That's being professional athletes, and the only way to be
Speaker 1: successful is to take care of all the details. And
Speaker 1: I think the best players are you know, thinking about
Speaker 1: those details all during the day. You know, they're worried
Speaker 1: about their their sleep, what they're eating. It's almost a
Speaker 1: twenty four hour a day job. So just putting your
Speaker 1: mind to something going a pent but you gotta take action,
Speaker 1: you know. It's it's actually sometimes you're not feeling like
Speaker 1: you you should go to the gym or you want
Speaker 1: to go, but you actually you gotta get your ass
Speaker 1: out of bed and and go for it, you know.
Speaker 1: And it comes down to self motivation. I think. I
Speaker 1: think as parents, you can instill that in your kids.
Speaker 1: You know, make sure they're writing down their goals on
Speaker 1: January one, you know, write down your short term goals,
Speaker 1: right down your long term goals. We've always had our
Speaker 1: best results when we have written those down and we
Speaker 1: are checking up on them, you know, once a month
Speaker 1: to see where we are in our progress. Um, luckily,
Speaker 1: we have the little voice in our head. You have
Speaker 1: the little voice in your head that says, hey, we
Speaker 1: gotta do this. You know. It's it's very hard if
Speaker 1: you're needing to be motivated by a parent or by
Speaker 1: a coach. You do have to have the self motivation
Speaker 1: to become great at something. That's where the love comes
Speaker 1: into play. You know, you fell in love with tennis.
Speaker 1: We fell in love with tennis. We like doing it,
Speaker 1: we like traveling, we like practicing. You know, this wasn't
Speaker 1: work for us. This this was easy. So if it
Speaker 1: feels like work at a young age, when you're eight
Speaker 1: years old, I don't think you have a future in
Speaker 1: tennis because you do have to be drawn two towards
Speaker 1: the practice. That that's what it is. I think Novak
Speaker 1: and Roger and Rafa they've practiced more than everyone. You know,
Speaker 1: they've they put in, they've probably put in more hours.
Speaker 1: They're not just given this god given talent um. It
Speaker 1: is the work. It is the practice. Yeah, and uh,
Speaker 1: I think there's always obstacles, you know, like it's not
Speaker 1: a straight shot up to the top. There's gonna be struggled.
Speaker 1: It's how you really perceive those obstacles. I mean, we've
Speaker 1: had more setbacks than I can even count. We've lost
Speaker 1: more matches than most pros have even played. And so
Speaker 1: you know, usually the darkest hour is just before dawn.
Speaker 1: You know, some of our our highest moments have come
Speaker 1: right after some of our biggest defeats. So it's how
Speaker 1: you handle defeat. You can't be afraid to fail and lose.
Speaker 1: You know, it's usually fuel for the fire. You know,
Speaker 1: when we've lost the top match, we're usually up the
Speaker 1: next day and we're using it as a motivation. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is what we need to do better. So yeah,
Speaker 1: you just have to, you know, see it as a journey.
Speaker 1: And as Bob said, it's good. It's gotta be fun.
Speaker 1: It's gotta be something you you really love doing. You
Speaker 1: can't force it, you know. So yeah, that's that's our
Speaker 1: our Tuesday motivation. All right, Well, final question, guys, tell
Speaker 1: me what has been the reason that you've been able
Speaker 1: to do this for such a long time and being
Speaker 1: such an unbelievable ambassadors for our game. Is it the
Speaker 1: love for it or the discipline we talked about you
Speaker 1: tell me. I think it's uh, yeah, go ahead, Bob.
Speaker 1: I think it's been doing it together. I do not
Speaker 1: think we would have a twenty three year career if
Speaker 1: we weren't doing as brothers as a team. Uh, we're
Speaker 1: just stronger together. We have more fun together. It's been
Speaker 1: great to share all these experiences together and we'll have
Speaker 1: stories for the rest of our life. Um, if we've
Speaker 1: done alone, I think it would have been long and
Speaker 1: we've probably would have burnt out. So the love with
Speaker 1: the game that my parents are still, UM, the support
Speaker 1: system that we have, you know, my dad sending an
Speaker 1: email and a text message to us every time we
Speaker 1: went or lose, you know, my wife being there to
Speaker 1: help out with three kids while we travel. Mike's had
Speaker 1: amazing support with Nadia. UM. So it is a huge
Speaker 1: team effort. And in our case, you know, it's having
Speaker 1: Mike there on the court with me. That's been a
Speaker 1: big help. Yeah, and we've pushed each other. We're we're
Speaker 1: competitors and UM, I've kept him, you know, working hard.
Speaker 1: He's got me. You know, when I've started to play
Speaker 1: a little better, he's always wanted to catch up. So
Speaker 1: we've it's been great. We've kept improving since we joined
Speaker 1: the tour. Um the game has improved so much and
Speaker 1: I felt like we've kept up to par. And that's
Speaker 1: just from you know, we just really hate to lose.
Speaker 1: We love to compete. So that's the the number one
Speaker 1: thing we're gonna miss is that Adrinaline Rush and um
Speaker 1: doing it together, competing together. Maybe we'll find it in
Speaker 1: something else. We love, to find something else we really love.
Speaker 1: It could be working with you on Eurosport who knows,
Speaker 1: but yeah, we're definitely gonna miss this time, you know,
Speaker 1: spending together day in and day out, but it was
Speaker 1: it was a good ride. Well, whatever you decide to do,
Speaker 1: I hope it's involved with tennis, because you've done so
Speaker 1: much for our game. It's been such a privilege to
Speaker 1: play against you, to watch you, to be with you
Speaker 1: on the teams. So thank you so much personally for that.
Speaker 1: And uh, Mike, I hope to see you here in
Speaker 1: Slovakia very soon. Bob. I hope that you're going to
Speaker 1: make it eventually at some point as well, show you
Speaker 1: around and we can spend some times nice time here
Speaker 1: as well. Yeah, waits for everything, Danny, thanks for having
Speaker 1: us on. And you know, obviously we've we've looked up
Speaker 1: to you and respected you um as Collide and now
Speaker 1: with what you're doing off the court. So thanks for everything.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. And I hope that one day
Speaker 1: we can be on the same team and maybe do
Speaker 1: some of this stuff together because you will be amazing
Speaker 1: in that as well. Thank you so mu Hi there,
Speaker 1: I hope you have enjoyed today's episode of the Real
Speaker 1: DNA podcast. Don't forget to subscribe you do on Spotify,
Speaker 1: epo podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts from.