NEW YORK – Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka and 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic have been added to the top of the initial list of 16 teams to compete in the US Open Mixed Doubles Championship.
The tournament was overhauled last year to give top singles players a chance to compete, with a $1 million prize going to the winner. The team announced by the United States Tennis Association on Monday included many of these types of stars.
2025 runners-up Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud will re-enter, as will Jelena Rybakina and Taylor Fritz, the Japanese duo Naomi Osaka and Kei Nishikori, and Jessica Pegula and Jack Draper.
The tournament will be held over two days, August 25th and 26th, with all matches being held at Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong Stadium, the two major venues for the US Open, and will be televised on ESPN’s facilities.
Teams can enter until August 17th, at which point the top six teams in the overall singles rankings will automatically qualify for the main event. This means Sabalenka, the two-time U.S. Open women’s champion, and Djokovic, who is still fifth on the men’s tour at age 39, will be able to compete safely.
The USTA will award wild cards to eight teams, with the remaining two teams competing in a qualifying tournament to be held on August 24th.
The remaining teams entered as of Monday are:
Mila Andreeva and Andrei Rublev, Belinda Bencic and Flavio Coboly, Diana Schneider and Daniil Medvedev, Amanda Anisimova and Lerner Tien, Alex Ila and Felix Auger-Aliassime, Leila Fernandez and Fla Siblings of Ncis Tiafoe, Taylor Townsend and Alexander Zverev, Elena-Gabriella Ruse and Nuno Borges, Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassoli, Katerina Sinakova, Henry Patten, and Peyton Stearns and Preston Stearns.
Errani and Vavassoli are two-time U.S. Open champions. Last year’s Italians ranked so low in singles that they needed a wild card to qualify, and this year will be the same.
The US Open was initially criticized last year because the format of the event shut out doubles specialists like Errani and Vavassoli, but the tournament certainly looked like a success, drawing 78,000 fans to the venue and selling out both days of the Ashes.
“Any time we can put women and men on the same team, we can bring out our best tennis, and that’s exactly what the Mixed Doubles Championship does,” USTA CEO Craig Tiley said in a statement.
“The Mixed Doubles Championship is an innovation that will attract new audiences and give our fans another opportunity to watch our big stars compete together.”
Errani and Vavassoli were the only traditional doubles team at last year’s tournament. Sinakova and Patten are doubles specialists and will have even more opportunities this year with the addition of an eight-team qualifying tournament, including six direct entry teams and two wild cards.
The format will be three-set matches with four games each, a tie-break at 4-all, and a 10-point match tie-break in place of the third set, up to the semi-finals. The finals will be standard scoring with sets of up to 6 games and tie-breaks at 6-all, with 10-point match tie-breaks if necessary.
