March Madness: #15 Doubles in no trouble

It's madness, I tell you! Fuzzy yellow ball style. Follow along this week for our Top 17 takeaways and outtakes from the 2017 Sunshine Double in California and Florida.

Check out No. 16 here.

Among the fresh, invigorating outcomes in the southern parts of California and Florida in the past three weeks has been the unexpected doubles outcomes.

Martina Hingis, uber-decorated in singles and doubles both, actually thanked her Indian Wells partner, for helping her think—yea, believe—that she belonged at a trophy presentation again.

Also in the desert, Rajeev Ram and Raven Klaasen upended both Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal in doubles—and in final-set super tiebreaks, no less. They later marched to their maiden Masters 1000 title, proving that communication goes oh-so-far in two-on-two play:

To Miami we went, where Jack Sock and Nicholas Monroe, of all pairs, topped the best-ever tandem of Bob and Mike Bryan in the semifinals. Why? Incredible reactions such as this, for one:

Sock and Monroe would fall in straight sets in their final on Key Biscayne, stopped by Marcelo Melo and Lukas Kubot. Even so, as with Hingis, their belief quotient has to be high going into the rest of the season.

While some top-flight singles stars sought to work their ways through doubles draws also in Indian Wells and Miami, they'll likely hold off on such ambitious plans the rest of the year. 'Tis a long year, after all. Even so, expect more zany shotmaking, intrepid play and surprising end results in doubles—men's, women's and mixed, all—in 2017.

It simply seems like that kind of year.