{"id":92550,"date":"2025-08-25T21:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T21:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/92550\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T21:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T21:53:09","slug":"the-mistake-both-karolina-muchova-and-jack-draper-made-that-discredits-the-new-us-open-mixed-doubles-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/92550\/","title":{"rendered":"The mistake both Karolina Muchova and Jack Draper made that discredits the new US Open mixed doubles event"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The US Open mixed doubles was certainly a polarising event this year, with this notoriously commercially-driven Grand Slam opting to revamp the format completely.<\/p>\n

In an effort to revitalise doubles in a way that had never been done before, they completely shut out almost all \u2018doubles specialists\u2019 in favour of artificial, dream couplings between some of the biggest singles stars on the planet.<\/p>\n

It was an allure that initially had the likes of Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek all involved, although as it drew closer, many dropped out due to fatigue or alternative commitments, including the former of that quartet.<\/p>\n

However, they still pulled huge audiences and provoked plenty of debate about whether the event could be called a success.<\/p>\n

Jack Draper and Karolina Muchova make US Open mixed doubles mistake<\/p>\n

Ironically, it is what two of its participants said in interviews that might just have completely discredited the format, with both Jack Draper<\/a> and Karolina Muchova slipping up when discussing the tournament.<\/p>\n

After all, whilst the winners were gifted $1m and branded Grand Slam champions, the British number one made a crucial error when he dubbed it an \u2018exhibition\u2019.<\/p>\n

Speaking after the first day of action, Draper responded when asked what it would mean to win the whole thing: \u201cYeah, it would mean a lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, it is like a bit of an exhibition format. It\u2019s nice to play with someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

This prompted Jessica Pegula, his partner, to scold him: \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t be saying that, but that\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah. It\u2019s not an exhibition. I know what you\u2019re saying.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, this was a sentiment that Muchova echoed, as she also stated: \u201cWe played an exhibition, and we heard that months later there was this exhibition, so we thought, why not try it again? We had fun in Macau, and we had fun today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swiatek offered a fitness update after the mixed doubles<\/a>, having flown straight from winning the Cincinnati Open title to compete with Casper Ruud.<\/p>\n

Was the US Open mixed doubles a success?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to rate the success of this new format, as it is wholly dependent on what metric it is measured against.<\/p>\n

In terms of controversy and entertainment, it certainly delivered, as it sparked so much debate about where the star power within tennis comes from, and if that should overshadow others who have dedicated their lives to an alternative craft.<\/p>\n

And, it\u2019s hard to argue that seeing stars like Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu, and Jack Draper and Jessica Pegula, all on court together, was not a joy to watch.<\/p>\n

It was funny and wacky, and it feels like that\u2019s what the US Open<\/a> organisers wanted.<\/p>\n

\"EmmaPhoto by Matthew Stockman\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

However, it does also discredit the format massively, and the legacy of mixed doubles could be irrevocably changed because of this.<\/p>\n

It will be really interesting to see how this changes the face of mixed doubles going forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US Open mixed doubles was certainly a polarising event this year, with this notoriously commercially-driven Grand Slam…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[7258,46066,101,118,56,54,55,6545],"class_list":{"0":"post-92550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-jack-draper","9":"tag-karolina-muchova","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom","15":"tag-us-open"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}