US Open Mixed Doubles Changes Spark Mixed Reactions

The US Open mixed doubles event will undergo dramatic changes later this year, drastically altering its format, scheduling, and qualification process.

The USTA announced Tuesday that the mixed doubles tournament will be played over just two days, Aug. 19-20, and be moved up earlier to run during US Open Fan Week rather than the third week of the tournament, as in previous years. 

For the upcoming tournament, the number of participating teams has been cut to 16 from 32. Eight teams will gain direct entry based on their combined singles rankings (rather than their combined doubles rankings), and eight more teams will receive wild-card entries.

The scoring format is also different. Matches will now consist of short sets played to four games, using no-ad scoring, with tiebreakers at 4-4 and a 10-point match tie-break in place of a third set.

The tournament also announced a hefty increase in available prize money, with $1 million awarded to the winning team, an increase of $800,000 from the previous year.

USTA executive director Lewis Sherr touted the changes as “enabling more fans worldwide to enjoy the thrill of watching their favorite stars compete for this coveted Grand Slam Championship title.”

While the USTA considers these changes a step forward, the tennis community’s reaction has been mixed.

“I’m all for tennis trying new innovations to engage fans and promote the sport,” longtime Tennis Channel and NFL Network commentator Steve Weissman told Front Office Sports. “This is a great way to increase the interest in Fan Week and give people a chance to watch their favorite players compete. I can also empathize with doubles specialists who won’t have the opportunity to participate, but I’m excited to see singles stars team up in a format that they wouldn’t usually play during a Grand Slam.”  

Jessica Pegula and Taylor Fritz, two prominent American singles players, expressed their enthusiasm for the new mixed doubles format in a US Open press release, with both players confirming their intention to participate this year. 

But the reigning US Open mixed doubles champions Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori (in photo above) took to social media to share their less positive thoughts. 

“Making decisions just following the logic of profit is profoundly wrong in some situations,” Errani and Vavassori said in a joint Instagram post.

“Mixed doubles is not very well known, that’s true, but everything that’s part of a Slam competition – the History behind every single result – is unique, and it’s a great honor to become part of it…In the last few weeks, we received the news that the US Open mixed doubles tournament will be completely turned upside down, canceled, and replaced with a pseudo-exhibition focused only on entertainment and show. We see it as a profound injustice that disrespects an entire category of players. We don’t know at the moment if we’ll have the chance to defend our title, but we hope this remains an isolated case,” they wrote.

Two-time mixed doubles Grand Slam champion Jan Zieliński took to X to share his disappointment with the new format: “No communication with the players, no thought behind what it means to some people’s careers, no respect to the history and traditions. Sad to see,” he posted.

From an administrative standpoint, the changes serve a strategic purpose: to increase the visibility of mixed doubles and attract a wider audience. 

The recent announcement that both days of the tournament will be broadcast during primetime on ESPN—an atypical slot for mixed doubles—underscores the intention behind the changes. 

This move is further amplified by ESPN’s newly renegotiated TV rights deal with the US Open, set to begin in 2026. The new 12-year, $2.04 billion agreement represents a sharp increase from the previous 11-year, $847 million deal, highlighting the growing commercial value of the tournament.

The lure of increased prize money, potentially attracting top singles players, combined with free Fan Week admission, promises a larger audience and the potential to surpass last year’s sales of merchandise, food, and beverages, including the US Open’s signature cocktail, the Honey Deuce, which alone generated an impressive $12.8 million during the 2024 tournament.

While Sherr acknowledged the criticism, he said in a statement the new format will ultimately benefit the collective: “We know that there’s a huge opportunity to create more interest globally in doubles, and there may be a cascading effect here, that the mixed creates a bigger spotlight on the men’s and women’s doubles when we get into that portion of the tournament.”