Baseline Award: The strongest team chemistry

Across the last two weeks of December, Baseline will dish out awards for the greatest acts of 2018.

It’s one thing when your regular doubles partner goes down and you’re scraping out wins—or perhaps a title—with their replacement.

It’s another matter entirely when you’re coming out on top in a Grand Slam in only your second tournament together.

Mike Bryan, half of the most accomplished men’s doubles team of all time, was forced to find a new teammate when his lifelong accomplice, brother Bob, went down with a hip injury during the clay-court season.

Mike played with a few partners for several weeks before joining forces with his younger compatriot Jack Sock.

The rest, as they say, was history.

In only their second event together, the duo claimed the game’s most prestigious title, winning Wimbledon in a mix of routs and five-set thrillers contested over two weeks.

At the final major of the season, “Team Brock” did it again, capturing the US Open and becoming the first all-American duo to take the title since Bob and Mike did it in 2014.

And to cap off their half-season of big-tournament dominance, the pair won their second London-based title by emerging as the victors among the best of the best at the ATP Finals.

More established partnerships have considered themselves fortunate to experience this level of success in a career, much less five months. The magical run, though, has come to an end as Bob is set to return next year.

However, for Mike and Sock, they’ll always have the history-making memories of 2018.

Follow Van on Twitter: @Van_Sias