MELBOURNE, Australia -- Mike and Bob Bryan lost in the third round of men's doubles at the Australian Open on Monday, the second straight year the twin brothers have failed to reach the quarterfinals.
The top-seeded Bryans lost to 14th-seeded Dominic Inglot of Britain and Florin Mergea of Romania 7-6 (4), 6-3, a new pair who began playing together in September.
The Bryans have captured six of their 16 career Grand Slam doubles titles at the Australian Open -- their most successful major. They fell in the third round last year, as well.
The brothers were up a break in the first set, but lost the next four points to let Inglot and Mergea back in the set.
"Up 4-1 in the first, usually that's a good position to be in for us," Bob Bryan said. "A lot of times we'll run away with a match like that and we let them back in and it just got sticky. We just weren't as sharp as we wanted to be in pretty much every category."
The Bryans also lost their season-opening match in Auckland, New Zealand, before coming to Melbourne.
The Americans finished with the No. 1 doubles ranking last season for a record 10th time in the last 12 years, capturing 10 titles and compiling a 64-12 record.