Bob Bryan choked up watching a gritty Andy Murray battle Roberto Bautista Agut before bowing in an emotional Australian Open opener.
These days, the future Hall of Famers and long-time friends are joined at the hip.
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Five months after getting a metal hip implant, Bob Bryan is back playing the Australian Open—and advocating Murray consider the same procedure.
"Seeing the way Andy Murray's feeling kind of hit a nerve with me," Bob Bryan told the media in Melbourne. "I'd love to see him do a similar surgery and feel the relief that it gives. Because I think our hips are pretty similar: just worn down, no cartilage...
"(Andy's) a special guy. No one has a heart like him. The match out there he just left it all out there. It's a little bit hard to watch because we hate to see athletes in pain, but we fight through it like crazy. It's unbelievable."
Murray is monitoring Bryan's progress.
"I just represent an option for him," Bob Bryan said. "That guy does everything you can possibly do as far as training and rehab and he's talked to a million specialists. But I'm the only guy to be playing on tour with a metal hip.
"And so he's been watching me like a hawk. He's asking me how I'm feeling after matches after practices where I'm at, just trying to gauge how long it would take him or if this procedure is an option."
Of course, covering half the court in doubles is not nearly as physically punishing as covering the full court in singles.
That's one reason why the six-time Australian Open doubles champion has not advised the five-time Melbourne singles finalist to have the surgery: Bryan knows singles "is a different monster."
"I never once told him that this is the way to go," Bob Bryan said. "Because I do see: Singles is a different monster. Those guys are really sliding around and killing themselves for four hours.
"So who knows if this (hip) joint would hold up. It's not going to break, but who knows if you'd have that little explosiveness needed to be super quick on the singles court? If you're a step slow it's very exposed out there on the singles court.
"So I'm just telling him I feel great, quality of life is great, practices are going well. You know, maybe I'm not 100 percent yet, but I'm only five months (since surgery). The doctor said this is more like seven or eight months until you feel perfect. Until I feel that I can't give you the guarantee."
The 41-year-old Bryan believes the procedure is likely Murray's last shot to save his career.
More importantly, he says it could improve the quality of life for the father of two.
"I think it's to the point this is probably his last option," Bob Bryan said. "I'd love to see him do it just for quality of life. He can sleep, walk, be with the kids and play. It's frustrating when you can't put on your shoes."
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