US Open 2025: Fast sets, big stars, $1 million prize money... Mixed Doubles 2.0| All you need to know

For better or for worse, definitely for richer, and for who knows how long, the reimagined, star-spangled U.S. Open mixed doubles tournament gets underway Tuesday at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.

Sixteen pairs, consisting of the biggest names in singles tennis and some of the best in the world at doubles, will compete for a $1 million payday over two days, before the tournament’s singles draws have even begun. ESPN will conduct interviews between sets, and, until the final, the sets are first to four games, not six.

Stars of doubles say it devalues a Grand Slam tournament trophy and their chosen discipline; the U.S. Tennis Association says that the previous setup was doing that already.

So what should a fan expect from this two-day jamboree or affront to the sport (or maybe it’s both)?

How does the new mixed doubles format work?

When Italians Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori lifted the U.S. Open’s mixed doubles trophy last September, they did so after going through a 32-team draw, played alongside the tournament’s singles events.

Whoever lifts it this year will have gone through four matches in two days, three of them shorter than a regular tennis match. In the mixed doubles’ new format, the round of 16, quarterfinals and semifinals will be best-of-three sets, but first to four games, not six. If a game goes to deuce, 40-40, then it is straight to a deciding point. If it’s 1-1 in sets, a 10-point tiebreaker will decide the winners.

The final will follow the same format, but the sets there will stick with tradition and be first to six games.

This is all to align with the tournament’s priorities of “trying to get the game’s biggest stars on the court playing together,” said Eric Butorac, a former Grand Slam doubles finalist and the USTA executive whose baby this mixed doubles event became.

Butorac has spent much of the past year quizzing, cajoling and nudging those stars, ultimately devising a format geared to their needs.

Competing in mixed doubles during the singles events was a nonstarter, which is why this competition ends four days before the singles draws begin Sunday. And the stars would need a bit of help qualifying, given that their doubles rankings, with a few exceptions, aren’t all that. So eight teams got in on their combined singles ranking, and the next eight were drawn as wild cards. One went to Errani and Vavassori, who called the format “a profound injustice” when it was announced.

Here are those teams:

Direct entries

Jessica Pegula and Jack Draper; Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud; Elena Rybakina and Taylor Fritz; Amanda Anisimova and Holger Rune; Belinda Bencic and Alexander Zverev; Mirra Andreeva and Daniil Medvedev; Madison Keys and Frances Tiafoe; Karolina Muchova and Andrey Rublev.

Wild cards

Emma Raducanu and Carlos Alcaraz; Olga Danilovic and Novak Djokovic; Katerina Siniakova and Jannik Sinner; Taylor Townsend and Ben Shelton; Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori; Venus Williams and Reilly Opelka; Naomi Osaka and Gaël Monfils; Caty McNally and Lorenzo Musetti.

What do the players think of the new mixed doubles?

Even singles stars uneasy about the format are getting involved.

Novak Djokovic, a 24-time Grand Slam singles champion, is on record that awarding a major title for two days of tennis is weird. Yet he’s in, with Olga Danilovic, a fellow Serb. Jessica Pegula, who reached the “old” mixed doubles final at Flushing Meadows in 2023, criticized how the USTA went about upending the event. She’s in too, with Jack Draper of Britain as her partner.

The tournament has irked longtime doubles players who are now on the outside looking in. Before she got a wild card to play with Jannik Sinner, Katerina Siniakova, probably the greatest active doubles player, said in an interview with the Czech news media that her absence meant the event would have little to say.

But Butorac said that when he started talking to top singles players about the format in February, the interest was immediate.

Iga Swiatek, a six-time Grand Slam tournament champion in women’s singles, and Casper Ruud, a three-time major singles finalist, were one of the first pairs in. Madison Keys’ friendship with Frances Tiafoe made them a shoo-in. And Ben Shelton, who is enjoying a promising season on the singles circuit, knew he wanted to team with Taylor Townsend, the women’s world No. 1 in doubles and a longtime friend. They made the U.S. Open semifinals in 2023, Shelton’s first full season as a professional.

“He says: ‘I’m going to play with Taylor. You know, we almost won the mixed a couple of years ago. She’s the best in the world. I want to win this thing,’” Butorac said.

Other players have different motives.

Draper missed this year’s hard courts swing with an injury, so he wants some competitive practice on the surface before the singles tournament starts. Siniakova had entered with Marcelo Arévalo, the men’s world No. 1 in doubles. They were sweating out a wild card. To get one, Siniakova ended up with Sinner after his original partner, Emma Navarro, withdrew.

Errani and Vavassori will have to fly the flag for doubles skill over star power all by themselves, and doubles results at the Olympics in Paris last year suggest they could upset a few famous faces. Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal were rolled over in the men’s event by Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek, who put on a master class in geometry and control.

What are the incentives?

The prize money is a pretty good reason. The total purse is $2.35 million. Just showing up is worth $20,000 per team, with $100,000 going to all quarterfinalists, $200,000 to all semifinalists, $400,000 for the runners-up and that coveted $1 million for the winning duo.

Last year, Errani and Vavassori received $200,000. So this is a fivefold increase, fueled by ticket sales at the two biggest stadiums at the U.S. Open, Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong; enhanced sponsorship interest; and the revenue that comes from having top stars play on ESPN.

Then there’s a private jet.

Alcaraz and Sinner faced off Monday in the final of the Cincinnati Open, a Masters 1000 event. Alcaraz won in a little over 20 minutes after Sinner retired through illness while losing 5-0. Swiatek was taking on Jasmine Paolini in the women’s final later Monday. The USTA wanted to make sure three of its biggest attractions made it in time to play in New York. Paolini was going to play mixed doubles at the U.S. Open, too, but has since pulled out.

In case of last-minute withdrawals, alternate teams are on standby. They will sign in before 10 a.m. Tuesday, with play starting at 11 a.m. If someone withdraws, they will get a place.

“There must be 20 teams on there,” Buterac said. “Is it going to be the top teams? Who knows, but I expect people will be here ready to take that shot if an open spot presents itself.”

As well they should. Some 36 hours later, a Grand Slam title and $1 million might be theirs.