Winning Indian Wells and Miami back-to-back: Mission Impossible?

Roger Federer with the 2005 Indian Wells trophy, and Novak Djokovic with the 2011 Miami trophy

Only nine people in the history of tennis have ever managed to do it, with just two having done it more than once. Now if you’re wondering what I’m talking about, well, it is this – winning the Indian Wells and Miami Masters back-to-back.

It is one of the most gruelling feats in tennis, perhaps second only to winning the French Open and Wimbledon in succession. And a look at the names of the only two people to have accomplished this unique feat more than once – Roger Federer and Steffi Graf – further reinforces the enormity and difficulty of the task.

Indian Wells is the first Masters 1000 event of the year and is followed by the Miami Masters, which are both part of the ATP and the WTA calendar events. The two events – both played on hard courts – are a bit like mini-Grand Slams in themselves, with 96 players in the draw and seven rounds of matches to be played.

The turnaround time between the two tournaments is almost non-existent – Miami begins the very next week after Indian Wells ends – which is why players usually find it so difficult to perform well at both events. Especially for a player who is made to sweat it out in tough battles against quality players on the way to an Indian Wells victory, reproducing that kind of effort in Miami without any rest in between is a near-impossible task.

The ongoing Indian Wells tournament just witnessed both the male and female defending champions – Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova – bow out of the tournament in their third round matches. That’s how tough it is; every year produces newer and better players joining in the rush to win a Masters title.

Seven men and two women have won the Indian Wells-Miami double, with Jim Courier being the first man to do so, in 1991, since the inception of the Indian Wells tournament in 1974 and the Miami Masters in 1985. Michael Chang won them both in 1992, followed by all-time great Pete Sampras replicating the feat in 1994.

Marcelo Rios is probably the most famous player in the world to have reached the world number 1 ranking without ever winning a Grand Slam, but he has achieved something almost as impressive as a Major title – he won the Indian Wells-Miami double in the year 1998. Andre Agassi won both tournaments in 2001, with Novak Djokovic being the latest player to do it, in 2011.

Although all the above have won the double once, which is a rare feat in itself, nobody else has done it in Roger Federer’s style. Not only has Federer won the double twice, but he also did it in back to back years, making him the only player in the Open Era to do so. He achieved the feat in 2005 and 2006 despite having Nadal on his heels, who was also in pristine form at that time; Nadal was responsible for eliminating Federer in the 2004 Indian Wells Masters.

Federer displayed immense athleticism during his two-year run as he dismissed one great player after another, often without dropping a set. His victories at these two tournaments were symbolic of the hold he exerted over men’s tennis during his peak years, complementing the various Grand Slam titles that he won during that time. However, as fate would have it, since then he has reached only one final at either tournament – at the 2012 Indian Wells tournament (which he won).

In the women’s category, Kim Clijsters won the two tournaments in the year 2005. She was yet to win a Grand Slam at that time, which she did a few months later at the US Open. Clijsters shares the stage with Steffi Graf, who won the two tourneys back to back not once, but twice.

Graf was in great form in the years 1994 and 1996, and entered the 1994 Indian Wells tournament as the top seed. She stormed her way into the finals where she defeated Amanda Coetzer without dropping a single set the whole tournament. She then won Miami while dropping one set in the final. In 1996, she was yet again the top seed at Indian Wells and faced a little difficulty in defeating Lindsay Davenport in the semis, but won the final in straight sets. She then went on to win Miami too, making her the only woman to have two March doubles.

In 2001, the Williams sisters were embroiled in a rumoured match fixing controversy which caused them to stop playing at the Indian Wells tournament ever since. Given how Serena Williams is widely regarded as the best female player of all time, it seems likely that she could have notched up many Indian Wells-Miami doubles had she played both the tournaments regularly.

Looking at the current situation, it’s looks very unlikely for the now world number 7 Federer to repeat his back-to-back wins this year; winning either one of the tournaments would be considered a major accomplishment for him at this stage of his career.

Novak Djokovic and Stanislas Wawrinka, however, seem to be in top form and one of them might well clinch the Indian Wells title. But it’s hard to tell if either of them will win Miami as well; after all, as we’ve seen, it’s extremely tough and rare to win the two tournaments in the same year!