{"id":31314,"date":"2025-07-23T13:44:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T13:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/31314\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T13:44:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T13:44:07","slug":"venus-williams-and-reilly-opelka-among-pairs-hoping-to-compete-in-u-s-open-mixed-doubles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/31314\/","title":{"rendered":"Venus Williams and Reilly Opelka among pairs hoping to compete in U.S. Open mixed doubles"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Open mixed doubles<\/a> tournament keeps getting more intriguing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the deadline for registration approaching next week, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) released an updated list of teams hoping to compete for the $1 million ($1.35 m) in prize money during the week before the singles and doubles competitions take place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new list of teams, 25 in all \u2014 nine more than the roster the USTA released last month \u2014 had another collection of big names, including Venus Williams<\/a>, the 45-year-old seven-time singles Grand Slam winner, who wants to team up with Reilly Opelka, literally the biggest player in the sport, when measured by height. Opelka is nearly seven feet tall. <\/p>\n

Amanda Anisimova, a finalist in singles at Wimbledon<\/a>, wants to play with Holger Rune.<\/p>\n

Some notable names have also dropped off. Jack Draper and Zheng Qinwen are no longer on the list. Both are injured. Draper pulled out of the Canadian Open with an arm injury; Zheng just underwent elbow surgery.<\/p>\n

Stefanos Tsitsipas and Paula Badosa have taken a pass. They, too, have been dealing with chronic injuries. Also, after two years of romance, they recently unfollowed each other on social media and removed pictures from their individual channels \u2014 never a good sign for a mixed doubles partnership, on or off the court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For those who want romance from their mixed doubles, though, there is some relief. Alex de Minaur and Katie Boulter, the Aussie-Brit couple who are engaged, have signed on.<\/p>\n

Many of the biggest-name teams, several of which the USTA organized in a fit of match-making, seeking to bring attention and interest in mixed doubles, are still there. That includes Jannik Sinner and Emma Navarro, Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu, Novak Djokovic and Olga Danilovi\u0107, Aryna Sabalenka and Grigor Dimitrov, and Iga \u015awi\u0105tek and Casper Ruud.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the new entrants include a slew of hardcore and successful doubles players. That means the USTA is going to have some hard decisions to make about its priorities for the 16-team field.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The top eight teams with the best combined singles ranking next week will gain automatic entry. The USTA will award wild cards to the next eight teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the issue: Kate\u0159ina Siniakov\u00e1 wants to play with Marcelo Ar\u00e9valo; Desirae Krawczyk wants to play with Evan King; Hsieh Su-wei wants to play with Jan Zielinski; Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori had already signed up; Gaby Dabrowski wants to play with fellow Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All those women are ranked among the top 12 in the WTA doubles rankings. So is Taylor Townsend, the world No. 2 in doubles but No. 97 in singles. She has teamed up with Ben Shelton. Ar\u00e9valo is the men\u2019s world No. 1; Siniakov\u00e1 is the women\u2019s world No. 1. Errani and Vavassori are the defending champions at the U.S. Open.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s a tournament organizer to do?<\/p>\n

\u201cEarlier this year, the USTA announced the reimagining of the US Open Mixed Doubles Championship, with the goal of driving greater awareness for this storied competition, giving fans both in attendance and across the globe the opportunity to see tennis\u2019 biggest stars \u2014 both men and women \u2014 compete side-by-side for a US Open Grand Slam title,\u201d the USTA said in the statement that accompanied the roster of registrants.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The reimagining included shrinking the tournament to a two-day event scheduled for August 19 and 20 to allow big-time singles players to use it as a competitive warm-up for their singles competitions. The format will be best of three sets with a match tiebreak for the third set. Also, the sets are first to four games rather than six.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Several top doubles players have complained that the USTA has turned a legitimate competition into an exhibition. Even Djokovic said recently that awarding a Grand Slam title to a team after a two-day competition of mini-matches seemed a bit weird.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now it appears the organizers may have made it too appealing, pitting committed doubles players against stars in singles. That said, they have also given themselves an opportunity to test the age-old question of whether two singles stars are better than doubles specialists at their own game.<\/p>\n

The question now, though, is how many of those doubles specialists will get the opportunity to represent their cohort and how the USTA will justify its choices.<\/p>\n

Williams put in a solid audition on Monday. Crowds packed a field court to watch her play doubles at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C. with Hailey Baptiste, who is nearly half Williams\u2019s age and a growing force on the tour this season.<\/p>\n

Baptiste and Williams did not disappoint. They notched a decisive\u00a0 6-3, 6-1 win over Eugenie Bouchard and Clervie Ngounoue. It was Williams\u2019s first appearance in a tour event since March of 2024, when she lost an opening-round match at the Miami Open.<\/p>\n

The full list of entrants so far\u2026
Emma Navarro\u00a0and\u00a0Jannik Sinner
**Amanda Anisimova\u00a0and\u00a0Holger Rune
Iga \u015awi\u0105tek and Casper Ruud
Jasmine Paolini\u00a0and\u00a0Lorenzo Musetti
Elena Rybakina\u00a0and\u00a0Taylor Fritz
Belinda Bencic\u00a0and\u00a0Alexander Zverev
Mirra Andreeva\u00a0and\u00a0Daniil Medvedev
Madison Keys\u00a0and\u00a0Frances Tiafoe
Jessica Pegula\u00a0and\u00a0Tommy Paul
Aryna Sabalenka\u00a0and\u00a0Grigor Dimitrov
**Karolina Muchova\u00a0and\u00a0Andrey Rublev
Olga Danilovi\u0107 and Novak Djokovic
Emma Raducanu\u00a0and\u00a0Carlos Alcaraz
**Katie Boulter and Alex de Minaur
**Donna Veki\u0107 and Hubert Hurkacz
Naomi Osaka\u00a0and\u00a0Nick Kyrgios
Taylor Townsend and Ben Shelton
**Iva Jovi\u0107 and Jenson Brooksby
Sara Errani\u00a0and\u00a0Andrea Vavassori
**Gaby Dabrowski\u00a0and\u00a0Felix Auger-Aliassime
**Demi Schuurs\u00a0and\u00a0Tallon Griekspoor
**Kate\u0159ina Siniakov\u00e1 and Marcelo Arevalo
**Desirae Krawczyk\u00a0and\u00a0Evan King
**Hsieh Su-wei and Jan Zielinski
**Venus Williams\u00a0and\u00a0Reilly Opelka<\/p>\n

**Denotes new entrant since initial announcement on 6\/17<\/p>\n

(Top photo of Alex de Minaur and Katie Boulter: Clive Brunskill \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. Open mixed doubles tournament keeps getting more intriguing.\u00a0 With the deadline for registration approaching next week,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,1794,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-31314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-sports-business","10":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}