The US Open is shaking up its mixed doubles event for 2025, rolling out a new format designed to attract more top ranked players and make it more interesting for fans. This year we’ll see team Alcaraz-Raducanu, Sinner-Navarro and Medveded-Andreeva among others, competing for a Slam together.
Those are some of the pairs on Tuesday’s preliminary entry list for the new and reimagined US Open mixed doubles event on August 19th-20th, the week before the singles competition starts.
The New Format
The 2025 US Open mixed doubles championship will be a more compact and star-filled event. Being played Tuesday and Wednesday of qualifying week, the organizers hope this will create more attention for the mixed doubles.
Gone is the traditional 32-team draw, replaced by a 16-team field: eight pairs qualify via combined singles rankings, and eight receive wildcards. Matches, apart from the final, use the fast format – best-of-three sets to four games, with no-ad scoring (sudden-death point at deuce) and a tiebreak at 4-4. If sets are split, a 10-point match tiebreak decides the winner, not a third set. The final shifts to best-of-three sets to six games, keeping no-ad scoring and a 10-point tiebreak for a decider.
There’s a $1 million prize waiting for the winning team, up from $200K last year, something that surely have helped in getting almost all of the top10 ranked players. The only one’s missing out for now are Coco Gauff and Holger Rune.
Matches will air in primetime on ESPN, a rarity for doubles, promising some good exposure.
The list of teams entered:
- Emma Navarro and Jannik Sinner
- Emma Raducanu and Carlos Alcaraz
- Jasmine Paolini and Lorenzo Musetti
- Olga Danilovic and Novak Djokovic
- Qinwen Zheng and Jack Draper
- Jessica Pegula and Tommy Paul
- 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
- Belinda Bencic and Alexander Zverev
- Taylor Townsend and Ben Shelton
- Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori
- Naomi Osaka and Nick Kyrgios
Players must confirm by July 28, and wildcards could add names like Gauff or Alex de Minaur, who’s eyeing a pairing with Katie Boulter.
“In our discussions to reinvent the US Open mixed doubles, we wanted to find a way to highlight the world’s best players by pairing and pitting them against each other.” said Lew Sherr, CEO of the USTA about the vision for this change.
“Look at the field we have,” commented Stacey Allaster, U.S. Open tournament director, and added “It is going to be fantastic for the fans.”
Player Reactions
The format has split the tennis world it seems, as singles players are mostly positive. Jack Draper called it “a good format to get prepared for the US Open”. Taylor Fritz said, “I think a lot of people are going to be excited about it.”.
Doubles specialists, however, natually feel sidelined. The 2024 champions, Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, called it a “profound injustice” and “pseudo-exhibition,” arguing it disrespects their craft since their low singles rankings make entry unlikely without a wildcard.
Jan Zielinski, a 2024 mixed doubles Slam winner, criticized the lack of player consultation, posting that it shows “no respect to the history and traditions.” Ellen Perez, a former doubles top-10 player, slammed the USTA for treating doubles players like “second-class citizens.”.
I guess winning two grand slams in mixed doubles in one year is not enough to get an invitation to US Open „exhibition” event.
— Jan Zielinski (@zielaczekk) June 18, 2025
Thanks for taking away the opportunity to compete and making it fair to everyone ?@usta @usopen pic.twitter.com/OMsoam39iC
Regardless of the increased prize money, the fast, new format makes it more of an exhibition event rather than a true Grand Slam tournament, in they eyes of many doubles players.
Let’s see if this US Open’s gamble will pay off, Alcaraz-Raducanu on Ashe in primetime sounds interesting, but sidelining doubles specialists does not feel right either. What is your opinion on this new format for the Mixed Doubles tournament at the 2025 US Open?
