Attracting Crowds, the USTA Changes the Format of the US Open Mixed Doubles

The United States Tennis Association is changing the format of the US Open mixed doubles championship to attract more well-known singles players and increase overall interest in the event.

The wild cards, extra spots given to players who did not qualify for the tennis tournament, would be necessary for some of the most intriguing duos, such as fellow citizens Novak Djokovic and Olga Daniloviċ and U.S. Open singles champions Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu.

Would Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, who won the event last year but are currently outside of the top 200 in the world for singles, be included? The Italian team declared in a shared statement on Instagram in February, when the new format was revealed, that “Making decisions just following the logic of profit is profoundly wrong in some situations.” In the last several weeks, we learned that the U.S. Open mixed doubles competition would be totally disrupted, canceled, and substituted with a fake exhibition that prioritized entertainment and performance above all else.

Errani and Vavassori will now require a wildcard. Taylor Townsend and Ben Shelton are included. If not the best, then perhaps the most well-known player in American men’s tennis is Shelton. Townsend is one of the top three or four female doubles players in the world. However, she is the world. No. 97 in singles. What would happen if Kateřina Siniaková, one of the best doubles players in the world, decided to get back together with Tomáš Macháč and attempt to recreate the enchantment that led them to win the Olympic gold medal in Paris last summer?

“We see it as a profound injustice that disrespects an entire category of players. We don’t know at the moment if we’ll have the chance to defend our title, but we hope this remains an isolated case,” they said to The Athletic.

In a video interview to The Athletic, Martina Navratilova, who has won ten Grand Slam mixed doubles titles (in addition to 18 major singles titles and 31 major women’s doubles titles), said, “The other teams will be wild cards, which means, what are you going to do — a song and dance routine in front of the ref to get in?”

“It kind of makes a mockery of the event. It’s an exhibition, not a proper event.” According to the USTA, the modifications would expose doubles to a larger audience. The stars of the field are concerned about not being included in the program.

The event, which will take place on Tuesday, August 19, and Wednesday, August 20, before the singles main draw on Sunday, August 24, replaces the traditional mixed doubles tournament with a two-day tournament designed mostly toward singles players. ESPN will broadcast all matches from Arthur Ashe Stadium or Louis Armstrong Stadium. The United States Tennis Association (USTA) predicts that the event will raise the bar for the mixed doubles format by bringing together some of the world’s most well-known players in competitions against one another. The winning pair will get $1 million, an increase from last year’s $200,000.

A USTA representative told The Athletic in a statement: “We understand and are sympathetic to the feedback from doubles specialists. We acknowledge that change is difficult, however, overall, we believe this reimagined Mixed Doubles Championship will elevate mixed doubles with a bigger spotlight and provide a greater opportunity to inspire more people to play and grow the sport.”

The USTA believes the new format, which includes a shorter tournament and a smaller field with a focus on singles rankings, will attract top singles players, thereby enhancing the visibility and appeal of mixed doubles. The USTA also cites increased prize money and prime-time broadcast coverage as ways to elevate the event.

At the ATP Next Gen Finals, the format will be best-of-three-set matches up to the final, with sets played to four games and a sudden-death deciding point at deuce. Tiebreaks will be played at 4-4, with a 10-point match tiebreak in place of a third set. The championship game will be a standard three-set match with tiebreaks at 6-6 and a 10-point tiebreak substituting for the third set.

“The US Open has long strived to find innovative and new ways to make the game more accessible and entertaining for our fans,” said Stacey Allaster, US Open Tournament Director, on Tuesday. “We believe that this reimagined US Open mixed doubles championship will do exactly that, with the top men and women players in tennis competing side-by-side in a fast-paced, highly competitive format.”

This event is a 16-team competition with four rounds of short matches played over two days.

The week before the singles competition, the majority of the best players in the world are already in New York, getting ready for the season’s final Grand Slam event and earning extra money from sponsors. The U.S. Open seems to have produced the ideal conditions for an oversubscribed celebration.

The organizers anticipated that something like this could occur, and they wanted to be sure that there were a few spaces set aside for typical mixed doubles teams, such as the reigning champions Errani and Vavassori, who won the French Open, which just concluded. They are planning a larger tournament, even if half of the submissions were wild cards chosen by a committee.

Of course, this is precisely the issue the tournament aimed to address. Mixed doubles has had a seemingly endless roster of extremely talented but less well-known athletes over the years. The contests, which were presented as forewords or epilogues to the singles tournaments, were held in largely empty stadiums.

The USTA made the decision to provide the public with what they want, including fans, media partners, and sponsors, who pay their bills. They wanted celebrities. They are now receiving them.