Bryans back at doubles for U.S.

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Jan. 31 (UPI) -- U.S. doubles specialists Mike and Bob Bryan face a Top 20 pairing from Brazil in this weekend's first-round Davis Cup series.

Brazil sends a team including Thomaz Bellucci, Thiago Alves and doubles players Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares to Jacksonville, Fla., for a best-of-five series against the Americans.

The matches will be played indoors on a hard court, the preferred surface of the U.S. team.

The Bryans comprise the No. 1-ranked doubles team in the world -- individually they are 1 (Mike) and 2 (Bob). They are coming off a win at the Australian Open, which was their record 13th Grand Slam doubles title.

Mike is 22-2 in Davis Cup doubles play and Bob is 21-2. They have 20 victories when they play together, a Davis Cup record.

Their scheduled match Saturday against Melo and Soares, who are also highly ranked, comes between two singles matches each Friday and Sunday.

The first match Friday features world No. 20 Sam Querrey opening for the Americans against the 36th-ranked Bellucci. World No. 16 John Isner takes the court for the second match against Alves, ranked 141st.

They switch opponents for Sunday, with Isner going against Bellucci before Querrey and Alves play the fifth match of the season.

The United States owns 32 Davis Cup titles but has won just once (2007) since 1995. Brazil's best results are advancing to the semifinals in 1992 and 2000. The United States is 3-1 in series against Brazil.

The Brazil-United States winner advances to the April 5-7 Davis Cup semifinals against either Belgium or Serbia.