Shortly after their disappointing straight sets loss in the semi-final of the ATP World Tour Finals, Mike and Bob Bryan was presented with the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian award.
The award was created in 1990 and is given annually to players who has made a significant contribution in charitable work. Previous recipients of the award include Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray. This year is the third time in history that the award has been given to a doubles team. Speaking about their 2015 acknowledgement, Mike Bryan spoke of his surprise, saying that he was originally unaware that they were nominated.
“The Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award is an honor. That came out of the blue, kind of a surprise. I didn’t know we were in the running for it”. Mike said.
“We’re proud of our charity work, the Bryan Brothers Foundation. We’re doing all we can to help kids survive and thrive and expose them to arts, athletics and academics, set them up in their lives, help them achieve their dreams”.
The doubles pairing are the owners of the The Bryan Brothers, a non-profit foundation set up to help vulnerable children around the world by investing in programs. The aim is to use sport, especially tennis, to promote the values of hard work, dedication and perseverance. The organization has existed for six years. Bob Bryan spoke about one particular program that they are proud of, the ‘Team Bryan’ scheme in Las Vegas. The aim of the program is to help children from troubled families. One person they helped was a young girl who attempted suicide.
“There was a girl, I’m not going to say her name, she’s coming from a rough household. Parents, they drink, they were roughing her up a little bit”. Bob said.
“She was very depressed, tried to take her life. This was in Australia. She’s part of this Team Bryan. We were able to send her a message. I wrote a song for her”.
The girl now works for the Team Bryan scheme as a volunteer. They have kept in touch with her and said that she is now fortunately doing a lot better.
The Bryan brothers also received the fan favorite doubles team award. 2015 is the 11th consecutive year that they have won the award. Since the inauguration of the award in 2005, no other team has won. Bob Bryan spoke about what the award means to him, saying that he was ‘very appreciative and very grateful for everything’.
The Bryan brothers have failed to end their season at the top of the rankings following their loss to Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau. Despite the disappointing ending to their season, the American duo has won 6 titles this year, including the French Open and three Masters titles.
