With US down 2-0 to Serbia, it came once again to the Bryan brothers, the world’s number 1 doubles team to salvage the doubles and push competition into a third day.

The bad news?  Mike Bryan, eating chicken curry in Belgrade, came down with food poisoning and was unable to play.  What were the choices?

Querrey and Isner play doubles and are ranked 8th in the world.  Perhaps against a more mediocre doubles team, this would be sufficient.  However, Serbia was playing Nenad Zimonjic, part of the Zimonjic-Nestor doubles team that has given the Bryan brothers troubles for a long time.  True, Nestor plays for Canada and therefore, Zimonjic had to partner with the less experienced Janko Tipsarevic.  Even so, a very good doubles player can cover up, somewhat, for a partner’s deficiencies.

It was decided that Bob Bryan should play, but with whom?  Of the two, Isner player in college, and thus had his share of doubles play.  Querrey, on the other hand, jumped into the ATP tour and never played college (and thus, is younger than Isner by a few years).  It was decided that Isner and Bob Bryan should play doubles together.

Although Isner does play doubles, the match showed that playing doubles in college and then mostly focusing on singles is not the same as having played doubles the better part of a decade.  Isner had some issues with court position as did Tipsarevic.

In the end, by squeaking out two lengthy tiebreaks, the American team won: 7-6 (8), 5-7, 7-6 (8), 6-3.

The job isn’t over yet.  Isner will play Djokovic in the first of the reverse singles.  The strong likelihood is Isner will lose.  Although ranked higher than Querrey, Querrey is still the better clay court player.  He moves better, has bigger shots.  Querrey had chances to win the Djokovic match.  It will take a minor miracle for Isner to beat Djokovic.  Querrey should have a reasonable shot at beating Troicki, but at that point, it will most likely be too late.

But that, as they say, is why they play the game.