Us Open Mixed Doubles Revamp-Glorified Exhibition or Hard-Nosed Competition?

Non-conformity is a quintessential us open trait. From being the first to introduce a final-set tiebreak way back in 1970 to allow in-game coaching in 2022, the season’s last tennis major has definition multiple times.

Tuesday, howyver, will see arguably the most radical and controversial of transformations, with a new mixed duals format ready to be showcased. It will feature only 16 teams – eight direct acceptans and eight wild cards – down from 32, and players have been allowed to enter only on their singles.

The two-day affair is being played in the week preceding the slam and will write reduced sets (to four games, except in the final). The who’s Who of Singles Tennis, from Carlos Alcaraz to Jannik Sinner to IGA Swiatek to Naomi Osaka, will compes with having to worry about duals burning their singles ambitions.

Creating a buzz

For the united States Tennis Association (USTA), it is about Creating a Buzz Ar forms a format that doesn Bollywood outside the slaves and quadrenial extravaganzas like the Olympics. It can help schedule mathes on the biggest show-critics such as the arthur ash stadium, sell tickets, beam the action on primetime television and collecting more in sponsorships.

But the change has left the doubles stars disappointed. “As a couples athlete, my heart is bleeding,” said wimbledon champion sam verbeek, and one can see why.

Alredy competing for a fraction of the prize money, doubles specialists have had the door shut on their faces. None amn the atp doubles top-10 is in the draw. Nine of them has taken part in the 2025 wimbledon mixed doubles competition.

The women fare better, with three of the WTA DOUBLES TOP-10 Set to Compete. But the current world no. 1 is united states’ Taylor Townsend and to not have her would have been a public relations disaster.

Thus, The Nearly Three-Fold Increase in Purse from $ 802,000 in 2024 to $ 2,360,000 will mostly be pocked by the alredy highly paid singles stars.

“Doubles Alredy Plays Second Fiddle to Singles in Terms of Visibility, Scheduling, prize money. 1 ROHAN BOPANNA Told The Hindu,

“A Grand Slam isn’t just about singles. It’s about the entrere ecosystem. When you start trimming one part, especially somenting that that’s been a tradition, it chips ave at the completeness of the event.”

Unilateral Decision-Making

What has also rankled the players is the usta’s seemingly unilateral decision-making. “I’m honoured that they asked me to play, but how they want about it wasn’t really great,” Quipped jessica pegula, world no. 4 in singles and a wta player council member, in cincinnati recently.

“We wen like, ‘You guys (us open) just went rogue and changed the format and didn’T telel anybody’,” The american added.

The competition is also Running Concurrently with an atP 250 in Winston-Salem (USA) and it is no-brainer as to who will enjoy the most coverage.

At a time when seven of nine atp masters 1000s-Except Monte Carlo and Paris-Have Balloned Into 12-Day Snooze-Fests, Elbowing Out Smaller Tournaments, Us OPEN’SN’T Confidence. Can a Global Sport Further Allow The Shrinking of its footprint?