The USTA confirmed 14 of the 16 teams Tuesday for the new U.S. Open mixed doubles tournament that has been reimagined with the goal of enticing top singles players to participate.
Leading the entry list, at least in star power, will be No. 1 Jannik Sinner paired with American Emma Navarro and No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz playing alongside 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu. Venus Williams, who came back to the tennis tour last week at age 45, received a wild-card entry to play with her longtime friend Reilly Opelka, the 6-foot-11 serve specialist currently ranked No. 74 in the world.
The USTA announced its mixed doubles overhaul in June, hoping to bring eyeballs and pizzaz to an event that had fallen off the public’s radar as tennis further stratified into singles and doubles specialists. Long gone are the days when top players like Martina Navratilova and John McEnroe would regularly play at least one doubles event at the Grand Slams.
But with players now preferring to focus all their energy on singles, the USTA completely overhauled the format. Not only will mixed doubles now take place during qualifying week – the week before the main draw begins – the USTA also pumped up the prize money with $1 million going to the winning team. The first three rounds of the tournament will be played in a short format with sets to four instead of the normal six, no-ad scoring and a tiebreaker in lieu of a full third set. The final will be played with sets to six and a 10-point tiebreaker if there’s a third set.
Making the format friendly for players as they prepared for the main draw was enough to attract most of the top-10 on both the men’s and women’s tour to enter initially. The USTA awarded eight direct entries into the 16-team field based on the team’s combined singles ranking and reserved eight wild cards to use at the tournament’s discretion.
Novak Djokovic, the all-time leader with 24 men’s Grand Slam singles titles, received a wild card because he chose Olga Danilovic, a 24-year old Serbian ranked No. 40, as his partner.
The last two wild cards will be announced closer to the tournament. There is also a possibility at least one team will be forced to withdraw, potentially opening up more spots in the field.
Teams for the US Open mixed doubles tournament
No. 1 Jannik Sinner and No. 11 Emma Navarro
No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz and No. 33 Emma Raducanu
No. 3 Alexander Zverev and No. 20 Belinda Bencic
No. 4 Taylor Fritz and No. 12 Elena Rybakina
No. 5 Jack Draper and No. 10 Paula Badosa
No. 6 Novak Djokovic and No. 40 Olga Danilovic
No. 7 Ben Shelton and Taylor Townsend (No. 1 in doubles)
No. 9 Holger Rune and No. 7 Amanda Anisimova
No. 12 Francis Tiafoe and No. 8 Madison Keys
No. 13 Casper Ruud and No. 3 Iga Swiatek
No. 14 Daniil Medvedev and No. 5 Mirra Andreeva
No. 15 Tommy Paul and No. 4 Jessica Pegula
Reilly Opelka and Venus Williams
Andrea Vavassori and Sara Errani (defending US Open champions)
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US Open announces 14 of 16 teams for mixed doubles tournament
