US Open Change Offers Fast Track to a Trophy

The new US Open mixed doubles tournament has drawn plenty of criticism for issues incluidng its format and its field. With mostly singles players, some who rarely play doubles, it felt less like a Grand Slam championship on Tuesday than an exhibition—which is what one player referred to it as. The fast-paced event, with shorter matches and a smaller field, already is down to its final four, the AP reports. It appears that whoever wins the trophy Wednesday night in New York—and a $1 million prize—won't apologize for the way they got it. "This is the official mixed doubles," said Casper Ruud. "If we get to the final tomorrow, I'm sure everyone is going to be pretty determined to try to win this thing."

• Day 1: Ruud and Iga Swiatek, the No. 3 seeds, easily won their two matches and will face the top-seeded duo of Jessica Pegula and Jack Draper in one semifinal. Defending champions Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, the only traditional mixed doubles team in the 16-team field, will meet Danielle Collins and Christian Harrison—who weren't in the draw until Jannik Sinner and Katerina Siniakova withdrew Tuesday morning because of Sinner's illness—in the other. Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu were quickly eliminated. So were the No. 2 seeds, Taylor Fritz and Elena Rybakina. Novak Djokovic and teammate Olga Danilovic also were one-and-done.

• The idea: Those types of Grand Slam singles champions are exactly the types of players the US Tennis Association was seeking when it revamped the tournament and cut it in down from 32 teams. Now played over two days, mixed doubles starts and ends well before the singles tournaments begin on Sunday instead of the usual concurrent play, per CNN. Organizers decided singles stars would be more likely to play doubles if it didn't interfere with their rest and recovery.
• Criticism: Traditional doubles specialists like Errani and Vavassori were among the biggest critics of the changes. Even Karolina Muchova referred to the event as an exhibition after her team's opening victory over Venus Williams and Reilly Opelka.
• The format: Eight teams get automatic spots based on the players' combined singles rankings. The other spots are wild cards awarded by the USTA. Sixteen pairs play best of three sets, awarded to the first to win four games. There's no advantage after deuce, with the winner of the next point winning the game. Instead of a full third set, there's a 10-point tie break. In the final, sets will go to six games, with tiebreakers at 6-all and a 10-point tiebreak for a third set. "Stamina's definitely less of a factor now," said a fan who nevertheless likes the pace.

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• The money: The prize of $1 million—an $800,000 increase over last year's—would be a huge boost to doubles players, but most of them never had a chance of competing for it this year.
• Veteran view: "It's a radical change," said Bob Bryan of the Bryan Brothers, the most successful men's doubles team in tennis history, who likes the idea of seeing singles stars compete. "The downside is that the doubles players won't get a shot to play it or to defend their title or whatever," he added, per CNN.
• No grand slam: Kristina Mladenovic, who's won doubles grand slam titles, said the format is a good idea as a business proposition, but she takes her participation seriously and doesn't like hearing players say they were entering it to have fun. "A grand slam is a competition steeped in history, in singles and doubles," she said. "There's no problem putting on such an event, but above all, don't call it a grand slam."