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It’s hard to know how the US Open’s experiment with a small-draw mixed doubles event that has been shifted to the qualifying week will work out.
But for the moment, there’s no shortage of star power in the initial entries announced by the USTA Tuesday morning.
Here are the teams that have entered so far, with 12 more days to go before entries close.
Emma Navarro and Jannik Sinner
Qinwen Zheng and Jack Draper
Jessica Pegula and Tommy Paul
Jasmine Paolini and Lorenzo Musetti
Elena Rybakina and Taylor Fritz
Mirra Andreeva and Daniil Medvedev
Madison Keys and Frances Tiafoe
Aryna Sabalenka and Grigor Dimitrov
Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud
Paula Badosa and Stefanos Tsitsipas
Emma Raducanu and Carlos Alcaraz
Belinda Bencic and Alexander Zverev
Olga Danilovic and Novak Djokovic
Taylor Townsend and Ben Shelton
Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori
Naomi Osaka and Nick Kyrgios
That list goes by combined singles ranking. But there’s no guarantee that all of them will get in.
After the deadline, the top eight teams with the best combined rankings will officially be in the field.
As for the other eight – well, the tournaments gets to choose half of the small field, despite the fact that this isn’t an exhibition but a true-blue, legit Grand Slam title.
The only duo to officially enter so far that has legitimate mixed-doubles credentials (or many doubles credentials at all) are the defending champions, Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori of Italy.
Perhaps it’s a longer list, but the USTA figures “no one” would be interested in anyone but the singles players.
The Italian pair just won the Roland Garros mixed doubles title a few weeks ago, as well.
But there’s no guarantee they’ll even get in; Jasmine Paolini and Lorenzo Musetti, given their high singles rankings, likely have a better shot. Which is an entirely different debate.
And the combinations have a certain randomness to them, zereo guarantee of chemistry (Emma Navarro and Jannik Sinner?? Taylor Fritz and Elena Rybakina??).
But there are a few notable exceptions: Serbs Novak Djokovic and Olga Danilovic have known each other for a long time, with Djokovic playing mentor and big brother.
Naomi Osaka and Nick Kyrgios (if he plays, and if they get a wild card) are represented by the same management company.
Paula Badosa and Stefanos Tsitsipas are a long-time real-life couple.
And, of course, there is Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu, with the young Spaniard finally getting a chance to shoot his shot in the nonexistent romance that is the subject of much fan fiction.
The mixed-doubles event will have “best of three-set matches” – but they are four-game sets with tiebreakers at 4-4. And no third set; it’ll be a match tiebreak.
But then the final will be a best-of-three set match to SIX games. No, we’re not sure why.
It’s only two days. But it requires all of the players to be in New York on the Tuesday and Wednesday of qualifying. Which essentially extends their Grand Slam commitment to a full three-week slog and means that none of the leadup tournaments the week before – this includes a WTA 500 in Mexico – even have a shot at getting name players.
The event will be on TV for just a few hours: 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. on ESPN2 on Tuesday, and then another hour from 1-2 p.m. on … ESPNews.
On Wednesday, it will be in prime time, from 7-10 p.m. on ESPN2.
It’s worth noting that this preliminary entry list may bear little resemblance to the teams that actually get on court for those two days.
There’s good prize money, of course – a cool million to the champions. But these players are already raking it in during this Grand Slam.
There are injuries – precautionary efforts to keep the load down before the big tournament.
And there are two players who have to meet their commitment, or the team as a whole is gone.
Something tells us that the USTA will “allow” late substitutions, though.
The mixed doubles is a popular draw during the second week of the US Open – those with grounds passes flock to the smaller courts to watch the matches in what’s usually a much bigger draw. Especially when some of the singles players take part.
Of course, almost none of the players currently entered in this new edition play the mixed doubles under normal circumstances. And yet the tournament seems to thrive just fine without it.
Those ground attractions will be gone now, which drops the inventory of matches during that more sparse second week. There hasn’t even been any type of “legends” event to speak of at Flushing Meadows in recent years. Of course, the tournament won’t be dropping the price of the grounds passes.
But for the moment, this announcement is making a big splash.
Whether it’s exponentially better than the “fun mixed doubles” from last year, or the “Tiebreak Tens” exhibitions held before tournaments like the BNP Paribas Open, is to be determined.
But to have to put so little effort into adding a Grand Slam title to your resumé and to butcher an official, real event just for the US Open to make a few more bucks sounds … wrong.
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