PARIS(AP) Bob Bryan's day at the French Open began with a tough loss and ended with a championship.
First, the American and his twin brother, Mike, blew a big lead in the men's doubles semifinals Thursday and were upset 0-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 by the unseeded pairing of 38-year-old Dick Norman and Wesley Moodie.
Obviously a difficult start to the day. Very strange loss,'' Bob Bryan said.Heartbreaker. Unexplainable.''
Then he went out and teamed with Liezel Huber to win the mixed doubles title with a 5-7, 7-6 (5), 10-7 victory over Vania King of the United States and Marcelo Melo of Brazil.
I was to the point mentally where I said, you know, things couldn't go any worse,'' he said.Things can only get brighter from this morning.''
Bob Bryan has won six mixed doubles Grand Slam titles, each with a different partner. He and his brother have won seven men's doubles major championships.
The twins felt they had a chance to add to their 2003 French Open title, but Norman and Moodie erased their deficit.
We should have closed it out. It could have been a 40-minute match,'' Mike Bryan said.It's unfortunate. One of those matches that kind of test your spirit.''
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NORMAN'S CONQUEST: Dick Norman has carved out a new career for himself by worrying about covering half as much ground on a tennis court.
At 38, the Belgian is the oldest French Open men's doubles finalist in the Open era, which began in 1968.
``There are more people who envy me than people who are saying, 'Hey, you're crazy. What are you doing playing doubles at 38?''' Norman said Thursday after he and Wesley Moodie of South Africa beat U.S. twins Bob and Mike Bryan 0-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the semifinals.
``I think today there are more people who are saying, 'I wish I was still playing and playing a final at the French.'''
The left-handed Norman turned to doubles this year after a long career playing singles. His best run playing solo at a Grand Slam tournament came at Wimbledon in 1995, when he beat Pat Cash, Stefan Edberg and Todd Woodbridge en route to the fourth round, where he lost to Boris Becker.
It's a very long time ago for me,'' Norman said.I still remember everything, but it's like a previous life.''
He and Moodie will play Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic and Leander Paes of India in the French Open final. The third-seeded duo of Dlouhy and Paes knocked off top-seeded Daniel Nestor of Canada and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) in the semifinals.
Moodie is pleased with the way his partner is playing.
The way he moves,'' Moodie said,it feels like he's 18.''
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BORIS & ANNA: As she gets ready to play in the third all-Russian major final since 2004, Svetlana Kuznetsova credited former President Boris Yeltsin and Anna Kournikova with the rise of the game back home.
Kuznetsova, who faces top-ranked Dinara Safina in Saturday's French Open championship match, said Yeltsin helped tennis in Russia by getting people to play.
Then came Kournikova.
Doesn't matter (that) people don't like her. Doesn't matter that they say she never won a tournament,'' Kuznetsova said.I still think she did amazing.
``They made such a big deal about her not winning a tournament. For me, she was top 10 player. She played semis, I think, of Wimbledon. She was very tough. She was No. 1, I think, in doubles.''
Kournikova was a four-time singles finalist, but never did win a title. She reached the 1997 Wimbledon semifinals in her debut at the All England Club, and won two Australian Open doubles titles with Martina Hingis.
``It's a lot credit ... doing this for Russian tennis,'' Kuznetsova said.