Imagine winning a world championship. Next, imagine doing it with your spouse by your side. Imagine further still: doing it twice.
That was the reality this spring for Brandi and Wojtek Bratek of Panama City Beach, Fla., who claimed their second consecutive mixed doubles world title at the ITF World Tennis Masters, the senior tennis equivalent of the Billie Jean King Cup and Davis Cup competitions held in March and April, where top tennis players are selected to represent their countries in the 30- to 85-and-over divisions. After winning the 2022 title as No. 16-seeded underdogs, the Brateks lived up to their status as No. 1 seeds and title favorites in the 45-and-over age bracket 12 months later in Antalya, Turkey.
In a 16-team field, they didn’t lose a set in their first three matches before beating Caroline de Vries and Dennis Bank from the Netherlands for the gold medal in a match tiebreak, 6-2, 0-6, [10-5].
“Personally, I believe we both wanted to prove that we weren’t a fluke team last year that just had a good draw and got lucky in the finals,” Wojtek Bratek said. “It meant a lot to prove to ourselves that we could do it again, compared to the first title that was probably a bit of a surprise to us and maybe the other teams that have never seen us play before.”