NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Open overhauled its mixed doubles tournament in hopes of drawing the top singles players.
The defending champions don't intend to move out of the way so easily.
Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori earned the first win in the tournament on Tuesday, beating the No. 2-seeded team of Taylor Fritz and Elena Rybakina 4-2, 4-2.
Traditional doubles specialists like the Italian combo were among the biggest critics of the changes, with a format that feels more like an exhibition than one
worthy of a Grand Slam trophy. The prize of $1 million to the winning team would be a huge boost to doubles players, but Errani and Vavassori are the only traditional doubles team in the event.
“We also are playing for all the doubles players who could not compete here, so we tried to do out best,” Vavassori said.
Fritz, last year's U.S. Open runner-up in men's singles, and Rybakina, a past Wimbledon women's singles champion, are exactly the types of players the U.S. Tennis Association was seeking when it revamped the tournament.
Now a 16-team event played over two days, the mixed doubles starts well before the singles tournaments begin on Sunday, with organizers believing singles stars would be more interested in playing if it didn't interfere with their rest and recovery during that event.
Errani and Vavassori didn't even know originally if they would get a chance to defend their title in the new format, which gives eight teams automatic spots based on the players' combined singles rankings. The other spots are wild cards awarded by the USTA.
The Italians were given one of them and they showed off their skills in a victory that took just 42 minutes. The shortened format allows the matches to speed by, knowing winning teams would have to play twice on the first day to reach the semifinals and finals on Wednesday night.
The highlight match for the first-round schedule was to come later Tuesday afternoon, when Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu took on the top-seeded team of Jessica Pegula and Jack Draper.
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