NEW YORK — The revamped US Open blended doubles event — which drew loads of criticism for all the things from its format (shorter matches) to its discipline (solely 16 groups) — received underway Tuesday and is already all the way down to its remaining 4, with the trophy and $1 million prize at stake Wednesday evening.
Casper Ruud and Iga Swiatek, the No. 3 seeds, simply received their two matches and can face the top-seeded duo of Jessica Pegula and Jack Draper in a single semifinal Wednesday. Defending champions Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, the one conventional blended doubles staff within the fast-pace occasion, meet Danielle Collins and Christian Harrison — who weren’t even the draw till Jannik Sinner and Katerina Siniakova withdrew Tuesday morning due to Sinner’s sickness — within the different.
“That is the official blended doubles. If we get to the ultimate tomorrow, I am positive everybody goes to be fairly decided to attempt to win this factor,” Ruud mentioned.
With principally singles gamers, some who not often play doubles in any respect, and an uncommon scoring system, it felt a lot like an exhibition that Pegula needed to scold companion Draper when he referred to as it simply that of their information convention.
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“He should not be saying that, however that is OK,” Pegula mentioned, later including that “it isn’t an exhibition.”
Previous US Open singles champions Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu had been shortly eradicated with a 4-2, 4-2 loss to Pegula and Draper. The No. 2 seeds, Taylor Fritz and Elena Rybakina, additionally went shortly in a 4-2, 4-2 loss to Errani and Vavassori. Novak Djokovic and teammate Olga Danilovic additionally had been one-and-done.
These sorts of Grand Slam singles champions are precisely the sorts of gamers the U.S. Tennis Affiliation was looking for when it revamped the event and reduce it in down from 32 groups.
Now performed over two days, blended doubles begins effectively earlier than the singles tournaments start on Sunday, with organizers believing singles stars can be extra occupied with taking part in if it did not intervene with their relaxation and restoration throughout that occasion.
Conventional doubles specialists like Errani and Vavassori had been among the many greatest critics of the modifications. The prize of $1 million to the successful staff can be an enormous enhance to doubles gamers, however most of them by no means had an opportunity of competing for it this 12 months. Errani and Vavassori mentioned they had been taking part in for these groups, but additionally acknowledged the potential good thing about the brand new occasion.
“I’ve to say that as all the things, there are all the time positives and negatives. However the positives are for positive that the stadium was packed within the second match,” Vavassori mentioned. “It is an excellent factor for doubles to be seen by extra individuals. I’ve to offer them credit score. I additionally mentioned it earlier than, taking part in this format is nice for doubles and blended doubles to develop sooner or later.”
Errani and Vavassori did not even know initially if they’d get an opportunity to defend their title within the new format, which supplies eight groups computerized spots based mostly on the gamers’ mixed singles rankings. The opposite spots are wild playing cards awarded by the USTA.
When Errani and Vavassori received the title final 12 months in Flushing Meadows, it was late within the second week of the event in a stadium with loads of empty seats.
The brand new schedule has blended doubles being performed now when normally the one competitions happening are the qualifying occasions for the singles tournaments. Admission onto the grounds throughout what the USTA calls “fan week” is free, so Louis Armstrong Stadium stadium was packed for the opening match, a far larger crowd than blended doubles usually attracts.
Some followers could not have even realized that the match was headed to a second set after Errani and Vavassori took the opener in simply 19 minutes. In conventional tennis scoring, they’d have needed to win six video games as an alternative of 4 to win the set.
The units to 4 video games with a 10-point match tiebreaker as an alternative of a 3rd set had been for use by the semifinals. Solely the ultimate would resemble a daily match, with units to 6 video games, tiebreakers at 6-all and a 10-point tiebreak for a 3rd set.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
