No. 1 seeds Bob and Mike Bryan “lost” in the first round of the Heineken Open on Tuesday. As replay confirms, they should have won. In face, they even chest-bumped to celebrate victory before chair umpire Kader Nouni had other ideas.
With the Bryan brothers leading Robin Haase and Andre Begemann 9-8 in the super-tiebeaker, Mike directed a return of serve down the line back to Haase. The Dutchman replied with a cross-court forehand that landed well wide.
That should have given the Bryans a 6-1, 6-7(4), 10-8 win. As such, both teams approached the net to shake hands until Nouni inexplicably called the shot in and gave the point to Haase and Begemann.
The unseeded underdogs went on to win the next two points and prevail 1-6, 7-6(4), 11-9.
“That’s the first time that’s ever happened to us and it’s probably going to be the last time,” Bob said. “What can we say? It’s just kind of like lightning struck us a little bit. We’re kind of shell-shocked. You live and die by the sword. We’ve won a lot of those close ones and it’s just the name of the game.”
“In our minds the match was finished,” Mike added. “We were a bit confused because the umpire wouldn’t give us an answer. We kept asking was it in or out and he wouldn’t tell us. He just kept referring to her like, ‘she didn’t call it,’ so we never got a true answer.
“But we’ve played tennis all over the world, that’s the first time it’s actually happened on match point and we’ve actually chest-bumped. For us it usually means the match is over.”
Tennis Channel commentator Robbie Koenig saw the replay of the controversial call and exclaimed, “way out.”
Begemann admitted, “I didn’t want to be the linesman on that one. To be honest, you get some calls every now and then. Today I think the linesman was on our side.”
Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand.
Topics: Andre Begemann, Bryan Brothers, Heineken Open, Kader Nouni, Ricky Dimon, Robin Haase, tennis doubles
-@Dimonator REPORTS ON @Bryanbrothers “WIN” THEN “LOSE” ON DISASTROUS CALL BY KADER NOUNI http://t.co/Fb5jBQ4ife @Bryanbros #tennis #doubles