When your livelihood depends on traveling across the world, a little planning is important.  Bob Bryan, who got married somewhat recently, was expecting his first child.

The good news was that it wouldn’t exactly happen during the Australian Open.  The bad news is, the baby was expected to arrive the last day of the tournament.  Had they planned it out a touch better, they would have picked two weeks after the Australian Open.  Indeed, because of the baby’s due date, Bob Bryan decided not to play mixed doubles which he normally does because the finals are on Sunday.

With that in mind, the Bryan brothers headed to Australia to attempt their sixth title and their fourth consecutive.  This has been their best title by far.  You would think, with the amount of time the two have played with each other, they would be on their twentieth Slam by now, but they aren’t even close.  They have won 11 Slams even though doubles players can have careers that last 20 years.

The Australian Open has always been a good tournament because many doubles teams do not last, and when they break up, they break up at the end of the year.  Teams are often working out the kinks at the start of the year, and so they often don’t play their best, and that works to the Bryans benefit since they’ve been with each other for so long.

Such splits can be surprises.  Bopanna and Quereshi were the Indo-Pak Express who decided the novelty of a Hindu and Pakistani team could lead to opportunities off the court.  They were seen as humanitarians, and it seemed like the team was ready to have a long run as a duo.

But, national pressure can be strong. A year ago, Paes and Bhupathi decided to bury the hard feelings they had which caused their split many years ago.  Why bother?  The Olympics.  And yet, even these two chose to split up.  Feuds, it seems, are thicker than national loyalty.  And with this breakup, Bhupathi (one imagines) wooed Bopanna to split with Quereshi, perhaps convincing him how much an Olympic medal would mean and how he would not win one with Quereshi, since Quereshi represented a different country.  With Bhupathi gone, Paes decided to team with Radek Stepanek.

Despite this team being only paired together, doubles teams often adjust reasonably well.  There’s mostly one style of doubles (serve and volley), and an experience doubles players knows how to work with someone else.  Indeed, many singles players have had experience playing doubles, and fare all right (Nadal has won a few doubles titles with Marc Lopez, for example).

During the post-match interview, the Bryans were asked how it felt to play a singles guy like Stepanek that is now dabbling in doubles.  Of course, tennis fans–and the Bryan brothers–know that Stepanek, like Sam Stosur, started off as a doubles specialist, and then found success in singles, and now does a bit of both.  They reminded the reporter that Stepanek of this fact, and they knew him from way back when.

The match was apparently pretty close for the first set, but Paes-Stepanek took the tiebreak rather handily, and got out to an early break in the second set, and with the momentum, eventually took the matchm 76 62.

The Bryans said Leander Paes took something off his serve and spun it out wide, and they didn’t quite adjust to this.  It’s possible that Bob had other things on his mind, too.

With this loss, Bob heads back to the US to be with his wife and see the birth of their child.  Meanwhile, Mike Bryan, who is making wedding plans as well, will head to Switzerland to play Davis Cup.  It’s unclear who Mike Bryan will play with, as Fish, Isner, and Harrison have all played doubles.  The Davis Cup team has a huge burden ahead of them.  With Roger Federer expected to play Davis Cup, the team would do well regardless of surface.  However, Switzerland has picked indoor clay.

Federer can pretty much play all surfaces, but the surface was picked because it’s Wawrinka’s best surface, and not coincidentally, no American plan plays well on clay.  Americans are lucky if a single player can reach the fourth round of the French.  It’s a far cry from the days that Agassi, Courier, and Chang reached the finals on multiple occasions.  The indoor conditions are likely to help Federer who prefers pristine conditions with no wind or sun or heat, though he plays fine under such circumstances.

It will be tough for any of the players to beat the Swiss.  They’ll have to beat Wawrinka twice, which is tough, but at least not David Ferrer tough.  And they have to win doubles.  Federer and Wawrinka will be paired together, but the Americans have a reasonable shot.  Federer will likely win both singles.  It would be a major upset otherwise.  The only issue for Federer might be the change of surface.  Many players find the change from one surface to another a big adjustment and potentially leading to injury.