Flashback: The Bryans best year in Indian Wells

This season, with Bob Bryan back from injury, it was great news just to see the Bryans on court in Indian Wells. They would lose in their second match, to Dominic Inglot and Franko Skugor in a deciding tiebreak.

Back in 2012, Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan completed the “Golden Slam” by virtue of making their way to the top of the podium at the Summer Olympics. Their first gold medal was added to their Davis Cup triumph, career Grand Slam and year-end championships, further establishing their dominance in the men’s game and among the all-time greats.

The duo had also ruled over the tournaments just below the aforementioned in terms of prestige, the ATP Masters 1000 events, as they’d won eight of the nine over the course of their careers by the start of the 2013 season. The only one missing from their collection was perhaps the one closest to home—and their hearts.

The Indian Wells Masters tournament had surprisingly befuddled the California natives and former Stanford standouts. Having conquered tournaments on all types of surfaces and under every playing condition imaginable, the brothers had often fallen short in the desert. After a promising debut back in 1999, when they reached the quarterfinals, the duo fell in the first round the next two years. They advanced to their first final there in 2003, losing to Wayne Ferreira and Yevgeny Kafelnikov and another in 2006, where Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor denied them.

After that final-round showing in ‘06, they came back the next year and promptly fell in the first round again in ‘07. After a decade of frustration, they kicked off the new one with another opening-round stunner. A second-round loss and a quarterfinal appearance followed over the course of the next two years.

Entering the 2013 tournament as the top seeds, the Bryans won their first two matches in straight sets, then claimed the next two in match tiebreaks to make the Indian Wells final for the third time. If a title was going to come, this was surely their best opportunity as they drew the surprise finalists Treat Huey and Jerzy Janowicz in the championship round.

The Bryans won the first set before Huey and Janowicz leveled the match by taking the second. Playing their third match tiebreak in a row, two of the best players California ever produced prevailed 10-6. History was made as they became the first team to win all nine Masters 1000 tournaments and a Golden Slam, but perhaps most importantly to the brothers, years of frustration at their “home” event finally came to an end.

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