'Sad to see': Players fume over major doubles shake-up

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The mixed doubles competition is being shifted to the week before the singles tournament commences, with the intention of enticing top players to participate in a grand slam doubles event by means of a revamped format and a prize pool of $1 million, which is equivalent to approximately $1.59 million Australian dollars.

This year's event will feature 16 teams competing over two days in shorter matches. Organisers believe this format will attract the sport's biggest stars, many of whom have opted out of doubles to conserve their energy for singles.

"What I reckon is the reason behind this is to appeal to more fans and grow the fan base all over the world," said Lew Sherr, the executive director and CEO of the US Tennis Association.

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“But the way to do that is to get the biggest names in the sport playing doubles together, and showcasing them teaming up and playing in a new format, we think is pretty exciting.”

The plan announced on Tuesday is for mixed doubles to be played on August 19 and 20, during the same week when the qualifying rounds for men's and women's singles are happening. Singles competition proper will kick off on August 24.

The early round matches will be best-of-three sets played to just four games, with a deciding point played at deuce. Tiebreakers will be at 4-all — rather than 6-6 in a regular match — and a 10-point match tiebreaker will be played if the teams split sets, rather than a third set.

Only the final will closely resemble a grand slam match, a best-of-three sets played to six games, with no-ad scoring, tiebreakers at six-all and a 10-point match tiebreaker.

The changes raised criticism from players – some of whom will have little chance of competing now – who reckon the new event doesn't cut the mustard as a grand slam.

“Fair dinkum, no communication with the players, no thought about what it means to some people's careers, no respect for the history and traditions. Sad to see,” Jan Zielinski, who won two grand slam mixed doubles titles last year, wrote on X, ending his post with a circus tent emoji.

Sherr said the USTA had previously discussed a format change, but it really started to gain momentum after last year, when a "Mixed Madness" event during the qualifying week attracted singles superstars like Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka, Nick Kyrgios and Ben Shelton, and was won by Stefanos Tsitsipas and Paula Badosa.

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“We've had a history and had a few chats over the years, like, why they don't participate and we understand the scheduling difficulties,” Sherr said. “I reckon last year's tournament with that hectic mixed doubles event really gave us some insight, that if we could make an adjustment to free up the top singles players to participate, because it wouldn't compromise their fitness or their health going into the singles, there was a huge chance to get them on board and that's what we saw.”

There was a $794,000 prize for that event, which had just four teams. By doubling the winner's prize money and expanding the field, Sherr believes it'll create a competition worthy of a grand slam title, rather than just treating it like an exhibition.

The athletes gave it their all," Sherr said. "It wasn't a laugh and a joke, no kids were brought onto the court. It was a proper competition, and to me, that's the real test. Would the athletes compete at their best, and the answer to that was yes. Now we've got the chance for a proper world championship, a grand slam title, and we reckon the stakes will only get higher if it's a full event.

Eight teams will get a guaranteed spot based on their combined singles rankings, with another eight teams getting a wildcard entry into the competition. Sherr wouldn't say who's already signed up, but enough players have shown interest that some teams might be announced in the coming weeks, before the full field is confirmed over summer.

“Sets to 4 games in a grand slam? 16 teams with 8 based on singles rankings and 8 wildcards. Sorry, but the US Open's now not gonna produce a genuine mixed doubles champ. Downgraded from a grand slam title to an invitational,” Paul McNamee, a five-time grand slam doubles champ and the former Aussie Open tournament director, wrote on X.

The tournament will be held in the two biggest stadiums, Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong, and broadcast live on ESPN during prime time, a rare opportunity for doubles tennis to be showcased.

But it'll knock out the doubles specialists who rely on grand slam pay cheques and now won't have access to one of them. To make up for that, Sherr said the prize money that was allocated to the 32-team mixed doubles tournament at last year's US Open would be redirected towards men's and women's doubles.

“Fair dinkum, there'll be some folks who'll be disappointed they won't get a crack at competing in this comp, “ Sherr said. “On the other hand, we reckon there's a ripper of an opportunity to get the world excited about doubles tennis and it might just have a flow-on effect, where the mixed doubles gets the spotlight and that shines a light on the men's and women's doubles when we get to that stage of the tournament.

We'll have to see how that pans out, but we do know that our mixed competition historically has been competing with the men's and women's singles, and so the fields have suffered and the attention has suffered. This is a chance to give it a fair dinkum spotlight over two nights.