NEW YORK (AP) — Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli advanced to the U.S. Open mixed doubles final Wednesday night by rallying to end the run of spouses Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils.
Bencic and Cobolli won 4-5 (7), 4-1 (10-5) and waited to return to the Arthur Ashe Stadium court later against the winner of the second semifinal. Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik faced Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev
in that one.The winning team receives $1 million.
Bencic and Cobolli knocked Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz out of the tournament Tuesday in the quarterfinals.
Then they dropped a set for the first time in the tournament, but began to dominate midway through the second set, winning the final 11 points to force a match tiebreaker.
“I think we just tried to play more brave maybe,” Bencic said.
It was the second year of the new format in mixed doubles, with the event shortened and moved to the week before the singles main draw begins, with the U.S. Tennis Association hoping that would get top singles players to compete.
Svitolina and Monfils accepted a wild card into it to team up for the first time. Married since 2021, they were trying to win a championship in the final appearance in a Grand Slam tournament for Monfils, who will turn 40 on Sept. 1, before he retires.
They pulled out a back-and-forth tiebreaker in the first set in which they blew a 4-0 lead, then erased two set points. They went ahead 8-7 when Bencic tried to hit a cross-court backhand but nailed Cobolli, who had strayed into the middle. Cobolli then double-faulted to lose the set.
He recovered with consecutive volley winners to break Svitolina’s serve for a 2-1 lead in the second set. The match tiebreaker was tied at 2 but swung the way of Bencic and Cobolli when Svitolina was just wide on three straight shots.
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