London: Bob and Mike Bryan won the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals to reclaim the year-end No. 1 doubles ranking, beating Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram 7-6 (3), 6-3 in Sunday's final.
It is the third time the American brothers have won the tournament and the fifth time they will end the year as the top-ranked doubles team.
"It means so much," Bob Bryan said. "It's pretty much what we play for now. I mean, that's the goal. Play well in the slams, but the ultimate goal is to finish No. 1."
The twins got the only break of the final to go up 5-3 in the second set and Bob Bryan then served out the match at love at London's O2 Arena. He fell to his knees in celebration before getting up to catch his brother as Mike jumped into his arms.
The Bryan brothers lost last year's final to Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic, a result that dropped them to No. 2 in the rankings behind the Canadian and Serb. Nestor and Zimonjic entered the ATP finals as No. 1, but were eliminated in the round-robin phase.
"We felt like it was stolen from us last year," Bob Bryan said. "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."
Mirnyi and Ram beat the twins in the round-robin phase of the tournament, but couldn't repeat the feat in the final.
"We like playing against them. We beat them three times this year, once this tournament," Ram said. "We feel like we have the game, the right game to beat them."
The Bryan brothers wasted three break points in the first set, taking a 40-0 lead in the seventh game. But Mirnyi and Ram held on and won the next four points - the point after deuce decides the games - to even the score at 4-4.
In the tiebreaker, Mirnyi and Ram took a 5-4 lead with a service winner from the tall Belarusian, but the Americans won the next three points to claim the first set.
"Max returned great, Andy played awesome," Mike Bryan said. "It made for some great rallies out there. Feel fortunate to come out on top. They're a great team. It's a shame they're splitting up next year. But all credit to them, they had a great year."
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