When the US Open announced it was “reimagining” mixed doubles, the rationale was to “elevate” the event and create “greater focus” on the sport.<\/p>\n
Interest certainly grew when the first set of star names were announced.<\/p>\n
Five-time Grand Slam singles champion Carlos Alcaraz teaming up with Britain\u2019s Emma Raducanu captured the most attention, while Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, Iga Swiatek and Venus Williams bring further glamour.<\/p>\n
“For the excitement levels and for getting the fans to pack the stadium, it is a cool idea to have that star power come out,” American doubles legend Mike Bryan told BBC Sport. <\/p>\n
“Fans want to see Djokovic, Alcaraz and Sinner even if they are brushing their teeth.”<\/p>\n
The 16 entrants comprise of eight teams based on their joint rankings, with the other eight given wildcards by US Open organisers.<\/p>\n
Twenty-one of the 32 players are ranked in the top 20 in the world in singles.<\/p>\n
Matches will be played on Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong Stadium – the two largest show courts at Flushing Meadows.<\/p>\n
American television audiences will also be able to watch on primetime on ESPN, who last year signed a \u00a31.5bn deal for exclusive US Open rights up to 2037.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s cool for the promotion of the game – and I understand the economics of it,” added Bryan, who won four of his 22 Grand Slam doubles titles in the mixed.<\/p>\n
“There are always going to be people upset – and winners and losers – but in the end I think fans will be pleased with the product.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the US Open announced it was “reimagining” mixed doubles, the rationale was to “elevate” the event and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-79199","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}