February 11, 2025 Update: The rumors are official and I’ve updated this post to reflect the confirmed changes.
The US Open is changing its mixed doubles format in 2025.
- Mixed doubles will be moved to qualifying week, the week before the main draw begins.
- The draw size will be changed from 32 to 16 teams. Eight teams will be seeded according to their singles ranking and eight teams will be given wildcards into the draw.
- Matches will be best of three sets to four games with no-ad scoring—a 10-point tiebreaker for the third set.
The shortened format tournament will have a multi-million dollar purse with the winners taking home $1 million.
Unconfirmed rumors also say that men’s and women’s doubles begin Friday, instead of Wednesday, during week one of the main draw, consolidating those tournaments into eight or nine days.
I have a ton of opinions on what I’d like to see, which I’ll get to below, but to start, I’ll attempt to tackle these changes from different perspectives to present the full picture.
Share your reaction in the comments at the bottom of this article!
A Great Short-Term Decision for the Tournament
From the tournament and tour perspective, this seems like a smart, short-term play (more on this below).
Last year, the U.S. Open had a few exhibition events on ESPN during qualifying week. I imagine if they can get Coco Gauff and Ben Shelton, for example, to play mixed doubles, they’ll have more negotiating power to generate “Week 0” coverage. They could potentially already have this deal done.
This brings mixed doubles from generating virtually zero TV revenue to being in prime-time spots during Week 0, a big upgrade in revenue.
Related Podcast
Matt Ebden Interview: I spoke with Matt Ebden about the state of doubles, including the opportunity for mixed, at Indian Wells in 2024. He was on the ATP player’s council at the time.
Singles Players Should be Mostly Indifferent
From a singles player perspective, I imagine this won’t affect them much. If the tournament pays up, they’ll be able to get some tennis stars to play in this mixed doubles tournament. Players will obviously still prioritize preparation for the singles main draw and won’t do anything to jeopardize their chances by competing in mixed doubles.
If the tournament is able to get the big names to play mixed, I can’t imagine top players giving it 100 percent the week before the singles main draw starts. This will likely turn the mixed tournament into more of an exhibition than a proper sporting event.
Doubles Players are Most Likely to be Upset
Doubles players have already made their voices heard on Twitter, including 2024 Women’s Doubles Finalist, Kiki Mladenovic.
- They already only make around 10-12% as much as the singles players, and these mixed doubles changes will only cut their opportunities even more.
- For reference, the 2024 US Open mixed doubles champions, Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, won $200,000 as a team. The 2024 US Open finalists, Taylor Townsend and Donald Young, brought home $100,000.
- For comparison, the singles winner and finalists earned $3.6M and $1.8M respectively. Men’s and Women’s doubles teams earned $750,000 and $375,000 for the champions and finalists. See all the prize money here.
The tournament likely won’t put many of the “doubles specialists” into the field as wild cards unless they have a big following. I could see them including names like Hsieh Su-wei, Katerina Siniakova, Taylor Townsend, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, and perhaps Desirae Krawczyk (Four-time Grand Slam mixed champion ) on the women’s side.
Related Podcast
Paul McNamee Interview: The long-time coach of Hsieh Su-wei, Paul shares stories and insights about Su-wei and what makes her game so effective.
For the men, perhaps organizers would give wildcards to Americans and Olympic Silver Medalists, Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram, or five-time Grand Slam mixed winner, Jamie Murray. However, they will exclude many of the top 10 or 20 doubles players on both tours.
I spoke with one doubles coach who told me they are happy with the changes because they don’t like their team playing mixed. It takes away from their practice time and chances at winning the men’s or women’s doubles title.
Share your reaction in the comments at the bottom of this article!
What’s My Take?
I think this is a great short-term play for the US Open to generate more revenue and eyeballs on mixed doubles. They’ll be able to get some of our sport’s biggest stars to play mixed in front of what will surely be larger New York crowds than normal for week 0.
The TV deal is perhaps the biggest opportunity. Tennis might be the only sport where men and women battle in the arena together.
That said, I’m not a fan of the changes.
To understand why, you must first ask why people like sport in the first place. People love to see the best in the world compete at the highest level against one another.
Mixed doubles is a huge opportunity for tennis to showcase our best men’s and women’s talent on the same court. Again, no other sport does this.
These changes, however, will turn mixed doubles into an exhibition that will more closely represent a home run derby or three-point contest than a World Series or NBA Finals. I don’t see top singles players putting in anywhere near 100% effort for mixed doubles one week before singles begins.
Related Podcast
Aldila Sutjiadi Interview: I spoke with Aldila at the Canadian Open in Toronto in 2024. She shared her story, playing doubles with different partners, and mixed doubles insights.
Over the long term, I believe a better product for our sport would be a mixed doubles tour with larger pools of prize money, where players want to win and give maximum effort to do so.
Update: The tournament’s $1 million dollar prize to the winner may help with effort level, however, the shortened format will take away from the credit of a true Grand Slam Title. I still believe most top singles players will treat this as an exhibition if they do play.
Of course, I’m also not a fan of taking away playing and revenue opportunities for the doubles players, but I do understand that business decisions have to be made. I just think the decisions should be made with a 20+ year vision rather than a “maximize profits now” mentality.
Share your reaction in the comments below!
Leave a Reply