Bob and Mike Bryan made music on and off the tennis court

This week, Maria Sharapova, Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan will be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island. Look for special features throughout the lead-up on TENNIS.com:

🎾 Tuesday: Maria Sharapova's Hall of Fame induction is tennis royalty well-earned
🎾 Tuesday: 119 doubles titles, 16 Slams, Hall of Fame: How tennis’ legendary twins, Bob and Mike Bryan, did it all
🎾 Wednesday: Maria Sharapova was all business, no matter the medium
🎾 Wednesday: Bob and Mike Bryan made music on and off the tennis court
🎾 Thursday: Four lessons you can learn from Maria Sharapova
🎾 Thursday: Six lessons you can learn from Bob and Mike Bryan

All of tennis’ Hall of Famers share common ground when it comes to quantitative achievements. Certainly, some more than others, but each of these greats has generated an impressive series of results that have earned them enshrinement in Newport.

Where they differ is on the qualitative front. What is the major attribute that best defines a legend’s legacy? For Chris Evert and Stefanie Graf, it was steely-eyed concentration. For Martina Navratilova and Rod Laver, it was a wide array of tennis tools. For Jimmy Connors and Monica Seles, it was competitive intensity.

Then there are two 2025 International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees, Bob and Mike Bryan. While watching these twin brothers play their extraordinary brand of doubles, you come away dazzled by the unsurpassed choreography of their movements across the court. As the joke went, you could be playing with someone your whole life and you’d still have been partners nine months less than Mike and Bob.

“Even the very best doubles team in the world can never be as close as twin brothers in terms of understanding each other,” says Tom Gullikson, himself part of a doubles team of twins alongside his brother Tim.

“Brothers are one thing,” says Luke Jensen, who won Roland Garros in 1993 alongside his younger brother, Murphy. “But twins? That’s amazing.”

Bill Rapp, tournament director at the ATP tournament that was played in the San Francisco Bay Area until 2013, gave their brothers one of their first professional wild cards around the time they were leading Stanford to a pair of NCAA titles.

Says Rapp: “A good way to describe the way they played was elegant.”

Choreography. Understanding. Elegance. Based on these words, there was a musical quality to the way Bob and Mike moved around the court. This makes sense, as next to tennis, music was their biggest passion. Growing up, there was no TV in the Bryan family household. When they weren’t practicing tennis or studying, Bob and Mike were deeply devoted to music.

“There’s something cool to music that when you’re playing it you can get to these flow states. It’s a different vibe from the physicality of tennis.” Mike Bryan

“Mike is a great lead guitarist and a great drummer,” says their father, Wayne. “And Bob is a great keyboard player and bass player.”

Wayne also had a deep engagement with music. He’d grown up in the Southern California town of Hawthorne, the same Los Angeles suburb the iconic band, the Beach Boys, had also lived in. Taking in those smooth mid-1960s songs, Wayne passed that passion on to his sons.

Addressing the music-tennis connection 10 years ago during an interview with CNN, Wayne said: “Don’t wait until you’re eight, nine, 10—the minute you can walk or hold yourself upright, get on that keyboard, get on those drums, get on that guitar, start hitting tennis balls.”

👉 Read More: The Bryan brothers' path to the Hall of Fame began at Roland Garros

“There’s something cool to music that when you’re playing it you can get to these flow states,” says Mike. “It’s a different vibe from the physicality of tennis.”

And as the Bryans hit the pro tennis radar, they seamlessly got to know prominent musicians.

“There’s always been this kind of tennis and music crossover,” says Elena Segal, a music industry executive who has long been a close friend of the Bryans. “It predates the Bryans.”

Indeed, consider the deep friendship between Billie Jean King and Elton John, King’s tennis prowess inspiring him to dedicate his song “Philadelphia Freedom” to her. The late Vitas Gerulaitis and John McEnroe also greatly enjoyed playing guitar and having the chance to engage with such musical icons as Carlos Santana and Keith Richards.

In 2008, while playing Rapp’s tournament in San Jose, the Bryans met Jim Bogios, drummer with the band Counting Crows. An enthusiastic tennis player, Bogios has enjoying playing both tennis and music with Bob and Mike.

“We hit it off right away,” says Bogios. “Tennis and music, it’s like summer camp, 24/7 ... Playing music with them, you can see how much they love it. You can feel it. It’s fun to be around that kind of love.”

A year after meeting Bogios, the Bryans Brothers Band released an album. It was called Let it Rip. Besides the title track, other songs were titled “Marching On,” “Spending My Days,” and “Chasing the Sun.” Bogios subsequently performed on “Open My Heart,” a single the brothers trotted out in 2010.

That musical dimension likely aided their tennis.

“They have unbelievable rhythm in their play,” says Wayne. “And if you study them closely, they have unbelievable rhythm between the points ... in how they move, and even when they sit on the bench. I’m a massive believer in what you do in between points is as important as the actual shots.”

Over the years, the Bryan Brothers Band has performed at tournaments, charity events and private parties.

“I feel like every athlete needs a hobby so they’re not thinking about tomorrow’s match too much,” says Bob. “[Playing music] was just a very fun way for us to get our mind off tennis, a relaxing hobby where you could be in the air conditioning and recharge your batteries ... Mike and I definitely have this ability with all the hours we’ve jammed together to get in this flow, in this pocket together.”

Be it in music or tennis, these two brothers have unquestionably struck all the right chords.