The tennis world was buzzing earlier this summer when news of the US Open’s new mixed doubles tournament was announced. For starters, mixed doubles—normally played during the course of the main tournament, making it unlikely that the world’s most well-known singles players take part—was moved up to the US Open’s Fan Week, which started yesterday. Prize money was also increased fivefold, so that the championship team will now take home a cool $1 million; and for the first time, the quick-format, two-day blitzkrieg tournament will be shown widely on TV.
What does that mean when the first serve is tossed into the air? Well, in the first round alone, we’ll get to see Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu take on Jack Draper and Jessica Pegula; the all-Serbian team of Olga Danilovic and her idol and mentor, Novak Djokovic, playing the all-Russian team of Mirra Andreeva and Daniil Medvedev; and the all-American team of Frances Tiafoe and Madison Keys against Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud—to name just a few.
All of the matches until the final will be played under a streamlined format: best of three sets, as per usual, but the sets are only to four games, with no-ad scoring (in other words, you don’t need to win games by the standard two points, so if the score is 30-30, whoever wins the next point wins the game); if the set score is 4-4, a tiebreak will determine the winner of the set; and if the first two sets are split 1-1, a 10-point tiebreaker will determine the match winner, rather than a third set. The sets in the final will be played to a regular six games, but still with no-ad scoring; set tiebreakers are played at 6-6; and the same 10-point tiebreaker will determine the match winner if the first two sets are split. (Got it? Honestly, you’ll pick it up better from watching the matches.)
So who’s going to win? If you’ve watched any doubles tennis—women’s, men’s, juniors, mixed—you probably know that two good doubles specialists will usually beat two great singles players who’ve just joined forces. Doubles, after all, is a completely different game than singles: faster, more unpredictable, streaky, with more serve-and-volley, shorter points, and its own specific strategy and tactics. Among the many incredible singles players lined up at the Open, only a few with consistent, top-tier doubles experience stand out: world No. 1 singles player Jannik Sinner’s partner is the 10-time Grand Slam doubles champion Katerina Siniakova; they’ll play world No. 3 singles player Alexander Zverev and the Tokyo Olympics’ silver medalist in women’s doubles Belinda Bencic in the first round. And the American dream team of Ben Shelton and Taylor Townsend is notable less because Shelton is currently ranked sixth in the world than because Townsend is the world’s current top-ranked women’s doubles player.
