Andy Ram fell at the final hurdle as his bid to win the men’s doubles title at the ATP World Tour Series was crushed by American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan.
Together with Max Mirnyi, the Israeli was unable to repeat his round robin victory over the siblings, going down in straight sets, 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 at the 02 Arena in London.
Serve dominated the opening set. The all-important breakthrough came on the first set point when a fizzing backhand split the Belarusian-Israeli pairing and prompted the trademark Bryan brothers chest-bump.
A break in game eight of the second set was enough for the brothers to serve out before falling to their knees, thrilled to have regained the title and the top ranking.
Ram said: “It's very disappointing as we didn’t take our chances.
"To get to the Finals and lose in the final, it's tough. Especially when we play the Bryans. We like playing against them, we beat them three times this year, once this tournament.”
A long time playing partner of Jonathan Erlich, Ram will start the 2010 season with Frenchman Michael Llodra due to family commitments.
Mike Bryan said: “Max returned great, Andy played awesome. It made for some great rallies out there. We feel fortunate to come out on top. They're a great team. It's a shame they're splitting up next year. But all credit them, they had a great year."
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