Bryan Brothers on the State of Doubles

Bob and Mike Bryan, 2025 Hall of Fame inductees, discuss how doubles can meet the moment.

Doubles has become a surprisingly prevailing debate topic over the last month or so of tennis discourse—including in Jon Wertheim’s mailbag today.

But all sides will readily agree on the gold standard for 21st Century doubles specialists: Bob and Mike Bryan, the twin brothers who won 16 majors together, 119 titles overall, and spent 438 weeks as joint No. 1s, dominating and transcending the format to become bona fide stars.

The Bryans can still get airborne, as Wednesday at Indian Wells. (Fred Mullane/International Tennis Hall of Fame)

Ahead of their August induction ceremony into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport—as first-ballot inductees alongside fellow 2025 inductee Maria Sharapova—the Bryans visited the Hall of Fame’s “Letters to Greatness” installation on the tournament grounds at Indian Wells on Wednesday, a booth where fans can record congratulatory messages to the inductees.

This year’s Hall of Fame celebrations feel especially important as a way to make up lost time: the Bryans and Sharapova both retired in 2020 during the pandemic, and didn’t get nearly as climactic of a final sendoff as they deserved after their illustrious careers.

Just before that visit in Indian Wells today, Bob and Mike hopped on the phone with me for an interview here at Bounces, discussing their induction, other recent doubles champions not making it in yet, lessons they think men’s doubles could take from pickleball, how other doubles specialists could learn from their successful playbook, the radical overhaul of the U.S. Open mixed doubles event, and more.

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Ben Rothenberg, Bounces — What does it mean to you guys to have gotten into the Hall of Fame, and pretty exclusively through doubles? That’s a less common path, especially recently, to getting in.

Mike Bryan — Yeah, it's extremely special. We realize you have to win a lot of Slams and be playing great tennis for so long. So we're very proud that we did that, and that we stuck together for so many years and have the longevity and the success. We kind of held a high, high bar for so many years.

The Bryans recording a message in the “Letters to Greatness” booth at Indian Wells on Wednesday. (Fred Mullane/International Tennis Hall of Fame)

So yeah, we're very proud, looking back; this is kind of the time that we're doing a lot of reflecting. And yeah, we're pretty, pretty excited to to be going in. And, yeah, it's never anything we really dreamed of. You put your head down, you play a lot of good tennis for a lot of years, and then, if it's good enough and it stacks up, then that's awesome. And luckily, it did.

Bob Bryan — Yeah, we wanted to definitely use these next months to kind of say our thank yous to all the people that supported us along the way, because it was a huge team effort. From our parents getting us started at a young age to our coaches and all the the fans and everyone that always supported us. We're definitely using this time to show our gratitude to all the people.

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces — Double specialists have not fared especially well on the ballot for the Hall of Fame in recent cycles. Daniel Nestor was on your cycle and didn't get in on his second try. I'd voted for him and also for Cara Black and Lisa Raymond, who also hadn't gotten in in some recent years.

Recent results in the Recent Player category for the International Tennis Hall of Fame. (Table by Ben Rothenberg for Bounces)

Why do you think that is, and do you think it's right that it's been such a high bar for doubles players to get into Newport?

Bob Bryan — Yeah, look, doubles doesn't get a lot of the attention, as you know, that the singles players get. It's a very—that's a tough question to answer. I think the criteria to get on the ballot automatically is winning 12 Slams; that's a pretty big number.

We both feel that Daniel Nestor should be in. He's got the third-most titles of all time. He's won all the Masters Series, multiple Slams [Ed: eight men’s doubles major titles and four in mixed doubles], and the gold medal. And if a player of that caliber is not getting in, then, you know, doubles isn't really looked upon fondly, I guess, by the Hall of Fame.

So I would like to see them maybe loosen the criteria a little bit for the Hall of Fame. But also, even on the singles side, honestly, I think that anyone that reaches the No. 1 In the world in singles or wins a Slam should be in, you know? I think that's a pretty damn good resume, getting to the top of the mountain of our sport. And there's a few people, as you know, that haven't gotten in.

So yeah, it's a very tough, tough road into the Hall of Fame. But, you know, we'll have some votes, I guess now, coming up after August, and maybe we can vote a couple of the people that we think are deserving in.

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces — There's been a lot of recent conversation about doubles specialists, who are a bigger group than before. I was looking at the rankings, and there seems to be less overlap than maybe ever before in terms of them being kind of separate populations. There's only one guy in the ATP doubles top 50 right now who's also currently a Top 100 singles player, and that's Jordan Thompson.

Is that something that you think is sustainable for the sport, or do you think there needs to be more overlap somehow between these two groups of players in order for doubles to be able to meet its potential as a product?

Bob Bryan — I think the ATP doubles rankings are a bit broken, in my opinion. There's not a lot of churn and mobility in the rankings. If you can get to the top 30 and you start getting in Masters Series, you have a golden ticket to ride that for a long time.

I believe that the Masters Series points are just very strong. A first round win at a Masters 1000 is 90 points, which is more than a Challenger [title]. A first round singles win is 25 points, which is at the semifinal [points] level of a challenger. So I know a lot of young doubles players that are very, very good, winning 10+ challengers in a year and not even getting close to being in these premier events.

[Ed.: This gumming up of the rankings pathway was also discussed in the below post I did from the Charlottesville Challenger a few months ago.]

At the Challengers, More Middling Than Movie Magic

So there has to be a better pathway for the young doubles player who comes out of college or has the skillset that is conducive for doubles wins. To be successful, there has to be a better pathway and I believe there should be doubles qualifying at every tournament. And this would this would help the pathway a lot, too. I'm just.

Mike Bryan — And then when it comes to singles players playing doubles, it's gotten really extremely physical on the singles court and it's very hard for them to come back after these matches and, and play quality doubles matches or to even want to enter in some of the doubles draws. So I think the sport's evolved in a certain way where it's even more physical on the singles side, so that's probably making it tougher, too.

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces — You guys were so good at attracting crowds and keeping crowds and building a fan base through doubles. Is there more that current doubles players and doubles-only guys can do from your playbook, from what worked for you, that you think they can do to grow and to be more magnetic?

Bob Bryan — Yeah, I think teams should stay together for the year. You sign up for the year. Ideally, it would be teams made up of players from the same country. I think there should be a rule where they where they have to dress alike; that would be visually more appealing to the fans.

Also, I think that with the evolution of doubles and the power and the technology and the “I”-formation, there could be an innovative rule change, a small tweak to create more rallies and maybe make it a little more entertaining for the fans.

It's played in a very quick, efficient way right now where the returner has to play very high risk because of a the net man being so close to the net. So there could be a way to change that. I mean, for example, pickleball has some great rallies, and if there wasn't a kitchen in pickleball, it wouldn't be a sport. So that's one thing that we've thought about in the last few years.

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces — Interesting. And I guess in pickleball, returns have to bounce before they can get hit, also.

Bob Bryan — Yeah. There's some stuff that we've been looking at: moving the net man, the server's partner, back a little bit off the net to get the point started and to have a little bit juicier rallies.

Mike Bryan — The club players don't play this way, so it's hard for them to relate to what they're seeing at the pro level as well.

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces — But you guys are saying you think something needs to change. You do think there needs to be some sort of shake up?

Bob Bryan — I think that could be looked at. Because doubles has evolved. Sports evolve as players get stronger, as technology changes. And I think a lot of sports have made small tweaks to rules to make it more entertaining for the fans.

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces — What do you think about the U.S. Open mixed doubles plan, and their taking away entries from double specialists to really try to focus on singles players for that tournament? What do you think about how they've redone that?

Remixed to Relevance

Bob Bryan — I mean, I hate to see the best players—the best doubles players—lose opportunities to play for a Grand Slam. But, I'm interested to see how this does and the excitement that it brings to doubles. And I love that the matches are going to be on national television. And I'm interested to see which big names play and to see how this trial goes.

But I'm just hoping that it doesn't feel like an exhibition. Because it's still a Grand Slam title, and you want to see those intense emotions that you see when doubles players win Grand Slams.

Thanks to Bob and Mike for their time, and thanks for reading Bounces! A reminder that the mailbag is still open for just a bit longer for any lingering questions on doubles or whatever other tennis topic intrigues you! Send them in to benrothenberg1+bounces@gmail.com or using the button below. -Ben