In the conversation of best U.S. Davis Cup doubles teams of all time, how could the Bryans not be there?

It's pretty much automatic.

Bob and Mike Bryan win a doubles match against (fill in the blank). Saturday, it was a couple of guys from Switzerland, helping the U.S. Davis Cup team take a 2-1 lead in Birmingham, Ala.

U.S. captain Patrick McEnroe said the Camarillo twins belong in the conversation among the best Davis Cup doubles teams he has seen.

"They're certainly right there at the top," McEnroe said. "If not at the top, certainly pretty darn close."

Maybe in McEnroe's conversation, they can't truely be at the top since his brother, John, has something to say about it.

When the Bryans beat Stanislas Wawrinka and Yves Allegro 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (2), they became the became the winningest U.S. Davis Cup doubles team of all time at 15-2, passing John McEnroe/Peter Fleming and Wilmer Allison/John Van Ryn. The Bryans are also 16-1 overall this year.

"We're just plugging away," Bob Bryan said. "I truly didn't know that we were playing for the record, at all. It's great to look at when you retire. When you're in the heat of the moment, still in the battle, you just want to keep trying to get better and look for ways to improve."

The Bryan twins' victory was a good sign for the U.S., which has a 180-22 Davis Cup
record after winning the doubles point and is well below .500 when it loses.

The match had turned tight until the tiebreaker, when the U.S. tandem won the first four
points and were fueled by the crowd of 15,867.

"It really feels like a home-court advantage," Mike Bryan said. "It lifts us. I think that's what kept our energy high in that breaker. They kind of pushed us through the finish line."