New York – the revamped US open-mixed double stomping — has elicited a lot of criticism for everything from its format (short matches) to the field (16 teams only), and is ongoing on Tuesday, already the final four, with a million dollar awards on Wednesday night.
No. 3 seed Casper Ruud and Iga Swiatek will win two matches easily, facing the top seed duo of Jessica Pegura and Jack Draper in one semi-final on Wednesday. Defending champions Saraelani and Andrea Vassori were the only traditional mixed doubles teams in the fast-paced event, meeting Daniel Collins and Christian Harrison.
“This is an official mixed double. I’m sure if we make it to the final tomorrow, everyone will be pretty determined to win this,” Rood said.
It felt like Pegra had old partner drapery when he called it at a press conference, mainly single players, rarely doubled, and because there is a rare scoring system.
“He shouldn’t say that, but it’s fine,” Pegra said. He later added, “It’s not an exhibition.”
Past US Open Singles Champions Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu were quickly eliminated in a 4-2, 4-2 defeat to Pegula and Draper. No. 2 seeds, Taylor Fritz and Elena Rybakina, also quickly went to Errani and Vavassori in a 4-2, 4-2 defeat. Novak Jjokovic and his teammate Olga Danilovic were also on his own.
These types of Grand Slam Singles champions are the type of players they wanted when the American Tennis Association revamped the tournament and cut from 32 teams.
Currently being played over two days, mixed doubles begins well before the singles tournament begins on Sunday, and organizers believe that single stars will be more interested in performing if they don’t interfere with rest and recovery during the event.
Traditional doubles experts like Errani and Vavassori were among the biggest critics of change. The $1 million prize for the winning team is a huge boost for doubles players, but most of them didn’t have the chance to compete for it this year. Errani and Vavassori said they were playing for those teams, but also acknowledged the potential benefits of the new event.
“I have to say, as everything is, there is always positive and negative. But the positive is that the stadium was packed in the second game,” Vavassori said. “It’s great that doubles are seen by more people. I have to give them credit. I said before, playing this format is perfect for doubles and mixed doubles to develop in the future.”
Errani and Vavassori didn’t even know in the first place whether eight teams would have the opportunity to defend their titles in a new format that would provide an automatic spot for eight teams based on the player’s total single rankings. Other spots are wild cards awarded by the USTA.
When Errani and Vavassori won the title at Flushing Meadows last year, it was at the end of the second week of the tournament at the stadium, with plenty of empty seats.
The new schedule is currently being played when the only competition is usually the qualifying event for a single stomp. Lewis Armstrong Stadium was full of opening matches as they entered the premises while USTA called it “Fun Week.”
Some fans may not realize that the match is heading for the second set after Errani and Vavassori scored the opener in just 19 minutes. Traditional tennis scores would have had to win six games rather than four to win a set.
A set of four games with a 10-point match tiebreaker instead of the third set was to be used in the semi-finals. Only the finals are similar to normal matches, with the set being six games, a tiebreaker in the six-all and a 10-point tiebreaker in the third set.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
