{"id":161334,"date":"2025-08-20T14:44:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T14:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/161334\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T14:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T14:44:10","slug":"u-s-open-mixed-doubles-sara-errani-and-andrea-vavassori-take-singles-stars-to-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/161334\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Open mixed doubles: Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori take singles stars to school"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of the U.S. Open<\/a> tennis tournament\u2019s new mixed doubles format.<\/a><\/p>\n

FLUSHING, N.Y. \u2014 Of all the players participating in the U.S. Open mixed doubles<\/a> jamboree, Sara Errani<\/a> and Andrea Vavassori<\/a> would have the easiest time walking the streets of New York City, with barely anyone taking a glance, much less asking for a selfie or an autograph. That\u2019s not the regular experience for two defending champions.<\/p>\n

But halfway through the fastest Grand Slam in the modern history of tennis, the only pure doubles team in the competition is schooling all-comers. No matter how high they are ranked, how wealthy or famous they might be, or how many titles they might have collected as singles players, Errani and Vavassori\u2019s opponents are so far running into a wall of expertise and experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the doubles guys were saying to me: \u2018You are the only one playing for now, so play also for us a little bit,\u2019\u201d Vavassori said in a news conference with a smile after making the semifinals.<\/p>\n

First, the Italians did away with Elena Rybakina and Taylor Fritz, the No. 2 seeds in a doubles tournament that was supposed to be all about singles stars. That\u2019s why Rybakina and Fritz were seeded and Errani and Vavassori needed a wild card to get in. Fritz and Rybakina mostly played singles on a court with different lines, and promptly lost in straight sets, 4-2, 4-2.<\/p>\n

Then Andrey Rublev and Karolina Muchov\u00e1 showed up for their doubles lesson. They are excellent athletes who have played for big titles in singles. Muchov\u00e1 has some of the best touch and feel in the game, especially at the net.<\/p>\n

No matter. Errani and Vavassori shot through the first set in 17 minutes. They needed a tiebreak to get through the second, but when it was over, they had won two matches in 98 minutes and had collected $200,000 for making the semifinals. That\u2019s as much as they won last year, when they won an event comprising 32 actual doubles teams instead of 16 arranged alliances of stardom.<\/p>\n

Maybe they dodged a bullet when Danielle Collins and Christian Harrison knocked off Ben Shelton and Taylor Townsend in the quarters Tuesday afternoon. Townsend is world No. 1 in doubles, and she and Shelton have played together plenty. They got to the semifinals of the mixed here in 2023.<\/p>\n

But Harrison is a doubles specialist himself. He and Collins have known each other since childhood. They were the last-minute alternates when men\u2019s singles No. 1 Jannik Sinner pulled out because of an illness<\/a>, ending his partnership with Kate\u0159ina Siniakov\u00e1, perhaps the greatest active doubles player in the world, before it got started. Collins and Harrison made their way to the Referee\u2019s Office for 10:30 a.m. to sign in and got their shot just before the start of play Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

They might just have some magic going. Collins showed up at the press conference with her five-year-old pup, Quincy. Life is good.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we first talked about this when we were like 15,\u201d said Collins, who was hanging out at a friend\u2019s house Monday night when Harrison called to tell her they were on the verge of getting into the $2.35 million event, with $1 million going to the winning team.<\/p>\n

Either way, there\u2019s going to be at least one doubles specialist in the final \u2013 either Harrison or the Errani\/Vavassori duo.<\/p>\n

They will face the winner of whichever team emerges from the battle of the singles stars: Jack Draper and Jessica Pegula versus Iga \u015awi\u0105tek and Casper Ruud under the lights, in what should be a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

There was always a chance this would happen when the higher minds of the U.S. Open decided to make mixed doubles at the year\u2019s final Grand Slam a pre-tournament spectacle almost all about singles stars. Vavassori and Errani\u2019s mastery of the doubles court shows why the tradeoffs may need adjusting for the future: Cutting out lots of their comrades means cutting down the most enticing matchups of singles vs. doubles.<\/p>\n

The payoffs were still apparent on the first day of the two-day competition.<\/p>\n

The Billie Jean King National Tennis Center was buzzing half an hour before any of the action got underway, with fans streaming across the fountain plaza in droves on what would have otherwise been a pretty sleepy day. By early afternoon, Arthur Ashe Stadium, where tickets were required, was nearly packed. There were more than 5,000 fans in Louis Armstrong Stadium. Seats there were free.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow cool is that?\u201d Collins said.<\/p>\n

They were making plenty of noise, too.<\/p>\n

And why wouldn\u2019t they? The schedule included some of the biggest names in the game: Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Emma Raducanu, Ben Shelton, Casper Ruud, Venus Williams, Mirra Andreeva, Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev, and even \u015awi\u0105tek, fresh off the previous night\u2019s hard-fought win over Jasmine Paolini at the Cincinnati Open<\/a>, which took her back to No. 2 in the world in singles.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u015awi\u0105tek and Ruud have shone on the doubles court in New York. (Robert Prange \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u015awi\u0105tek took an ice bath, showered, ate, did some media, hopped on a plane, landed past midnight, got to her hotel at 1:30 a.m., and fell asleep about an hour later. At 10 a.m. the next day, Ruud looked across the gym and saw his partner stretching on the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWildly impressive,\u201d Ruud said of his partner. \u201cIga will have a good night\u2019s sleep tonight. She deserves that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, she does. \u015awi\u0105tek, a six-time Grand Slam champion in singles and a French Open finalist in doubles, reminded the world just how versatile a player she can be. She put on a show at the net with her quick hands and touch, she won baseline battles with her male opponents, and she showed the understanding of doubles geometry that people who play singles exclusively just don\u2019t have.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I think it\u2019s a reminder that tennis should be fun,\u201d \u015awi\u0105tek said of the experience. \u201cWhen we\u2019re just preparing for the singles, there\u2019s a lot of pressure and expectations on us.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was Alcaraz floating from nowhere across the back of the court to find a ball that had long gone by his partner, Raducanu, seemingly ending the point. Instead, Alcaraz floated the ball over the net post into the open court.<\/p>\n

There was Shelton, bombing that serve, hitting volleys with his knees on the pavement and sliding balls nearly parallel to the net to light up the crowd.<\/p>\n

\u015awi\u0105tek rolled crosscourt forehands and backhands with anyone who dared to match her, and then decided to beat them. Andreeva and Djokovic got into a seriously high-octane crosscourt forehand fight.<\/p>\n

This is what the U.S. Open wanted when it rolled out this format earlier in the year. It wanted big names and big crowds and big buzz, even if that meant a new-fangled scoring system to keep matches to about an hour, and holding mixed doubles well before the start of the singles.<\/p>\n

Halfway through, it seems to be working. Arthur Ashe Stadium should be near its 24,000 capacity for the semifinals and finals Wednesday night, an unheard-of crowd for a doubles competition. They figured it would go like that. But Errani and Vavassori, who know their way around the doubles court better than anyone else, are turning into the star pair on the court.<\/p>\n

Vavassori hounds the net with his teradactyl-like wingspan. Errani sneaks into the open space at the last minute, reading the next shot before it leaves her opponents\u2019 strings, a task made that much easier when the opponents don\u2019t generally play doubles. They are on a mission that they believe is bigger than themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to show also that doubles players are great players,\u201d Vavassori said after making the semifinals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our main goal in the future will be to change a little bit the narrative because singles players are amazing on singles, but doubles players are amazing in doubles. If doubles players play against singles, sometimes they play better because they are more organized.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, the rackets and the balls are the same, but in so many ways, doubles is a different sport from singles. It\u2019s all about anticipation, tiny steps, court coverage, and using the hands of a billiards master to find the seams in the defense.<\/p>\n

It is not at all unusual for a great doubles team to take apart two great singles players who come together for a shotgun wedding, as Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal<\/a> did for the Paris Olympics last year. Alcaraz can hit through most players. Hitting through two guarding the same court is another matter, as Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek showed the Spaniards in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

In the big picture, it may not matter all that much. The goal was to take an underserved competition and turn it into a happening. That is undoubtedly underway, even if Draper used the dreaded phrase \u201cexhibition\u201d to describe the competition. Pegula gently told him that was a no-no. Muchov\u00e1 and Rublev did it, too, earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

Even Vavassori, who, along with Errani, had criticized a format that cut out nearly all the players who make their living off doubles, was giving what sounded like one-and-a-half thumbs up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great thing for doubles to be seen by more people,\u201d he said. \u201cI have to give them credit. I also said it before, playing this format is great for doubles and mixed doubles to develop in the future. Like, creating a tournament with singles stars that are more seen on the tour is a great thing for doubles.\u201d<\/p>\n

He knows his sport is in some trouble. No one markets the players, so no one knows the players. \u201cIf you go to see a sport and you don\u2019t know the protagonist of a sport, it\u2019s impossible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Everyone knew the protagonists on Tuesday, and they will know most of them Wednesday night. By the time it\u2019s over, Vavassori and Errani might not be so anonymous on the New York streets.<\/p>\n

(Top photo: Elsa \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of the U.S. Open tennis tournament\u2019s new mixed doubles format. FLUSHING, N.Y. \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":161335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[62,222,1464,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-161334","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-sports-business","10":"tag-tennis","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115061631453836845","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}