{"id":52926,"date":"2026-08-19T17:34:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T17:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/52926\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T17:34:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T17:34:48","slug":"the-u-s-open-mixed-doubles-fields-biggest-stars-might-be-its-unknowns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/52926\/","title":{"rendered":"The U.S. Open mixed doubles field\u2019s biggest stars might be its unknowns"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Open mixed doubles field<\/a> rounded into form on Monday, as the U.S. Tennis Association handed five wild-card entries to a handful of the biggest names in the sport \u2014 and the defending champions.<\/p>\n

Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, who taught a roster of singles stars a lesson in doubles acumen<\/a> to win $1 million last year, have been granted the golden ticket they needed to defend their title because direct entry was calculated by singles ranking. French Open champion Alexander Zverev, home favorites Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Townsend and rising star Alex Eala are all part of four more pairs granted a wild card. The full list of main-draw wild cards released Monday is:<\/p>\n

Alex Eala and F\u00e9lix Auger-Aliassime
\nLeylah Fernandez and Frances Tiafoe
\nTaylor Townsend and Alexander Zverev
\nElina Svitolina and Ga\u00ebl Monfils
\nSara Errani and Andrea Vavassori<\/p>\n

The tournament is holding back three wild-card entries, one of which will likely go to Serena Williams<\/a> and her potential partner if she decides she is fit enough to play.<\/p>\n

Why the best singles players lose at doubles<\/p>\n

Matthew Futterman<\/p>\n

Those eight pairs will join the six teams who enter the main draw directly: Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic; Elena Rybakina and Taylor Fritz; Diana Shnaider and Daniil Medvedev; Iga \u015awi\u0105tek and Casper Ruud; Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli and Amanda Anisimova and Learner Tien.<\/p>\n

The final two spots in the main draw will be occupied by the two teams that come through a qualifying competition. That competition will feature eight teams: two yet-to-be-announced wild cards and six direct entries, largely composed of doubles stars including world No. 1s Henry Patten and Kate\u0159ina Siniakov\u00e1:<\/p>\n

Kate\u0159ina Siniakov\u00e1 and Henry Patten
\nGabriela Dabrowski and Harri Heli\u00f6vaara
\nLuisa Stefani and Neal Skupski
\nAleksandra Kruni\u0107 and Mate Pavi\u0107
\nJelena Ostapenko and Marcelo Ar\u00e9valo
\nErin Routliffe and Lloyd Glasspool<\/p>\n

The field allows for a number of singles vs. doubles showdowns in the early rounds of the main draw, which have more teeth in the context of planned reforms to the discipline on the men\u2019s tour. Patten has been outspoken in his criticism of plans to shrink draws and prize money, including inviting singles stars to beat doubles players at their own game. The ATP Tour said that plans to rework the men\u2019s doubles tour remain under consideration.<\/p>\n

The candidates for the three remaining main-draw wild cards include some of the biggest stars in tennis, some of whom have doubts about their participation. Defending men\u2019s singles champion Carlos Alcaraz, who is still rehabbing a wrist injury, and world No. 1 Jannik Sinner are both absent. Home favorite Jessica Pegula planned to team up with Jack Draper, but the Brit is managing a chronic arm injury.<\/p>\n

Newlyweds Alex de Minaur and Katie Boulter are planning to form a team. Seven-time major singles champion Venus Williams, who could play doubles with Serena in the women\u2019s event, was on the most recent entry list alongside the mercurial Alexander Bublik.<\/p>\n

In some ways, the United States Tennis Association is at the mercy of the health and success of a handful of top-20 singles players, who may advance deep into the ongoing Cincinnati Open and therefore have a decision to make about playing mixed doubles qualification a matter of days after exiting \u2014 or even winning \u2014 that event.<\/p>\n

The tournament begins Monday, Aug. 24, with the eight-team qualifying competition. The main draw will take place on Aug. 25 and 26. The Cincinnati Open women\u2019s singles final is Saturday, Aug. 22; the men\u2019s final is Sunday, Aug. 23.<\/p>\n

Teams will play best-of-three sets to four games until the final, with a 10-point tiebreak instead of a third set. In the final, the sets will stretch to the regulation six games, with a 10-point tiebreak instead of a third set. No-ad scoring will be used throughout the tournament.<\/p>\n

For now, the main intrigue is who will fill the vacant slots at what has become the cornerstone of the U.S. Open\u2019s curtain-raiser.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. Open mixed doubles field rounded into form on Monday, as the U.S. Tennis Association handed five…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1308,1599,3342,1288],"class_list":["post-52926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-u-s-open-championship","tag-culture","tag-sports-business","tag-tennis","tag-u-s-open-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}