{"id":46153,"date":"2025-07-29T23:10:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T23:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/46153\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T23:10:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T23:10:10","slug":"u-s-open-announces-mixed-doubles-direct-entries-wild-cards-include-alcaraz-and-raducanu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/46153\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Open announces mixed doubles direct entries, wild cards include Alcaraz and Raducanu"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now the U.S. Open mixed doubles<\/a> fun can really begin.<\/p>\n

Heavy on glitz and singles stars, the 16-team tournament will be lighter on doubles players who have honed their skills on that tour. With registration closed, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) has announced 14 of the 16 teams, eight of them direct entries and six of them wild cards.<\/p>\n

Last week, the USTA announced 25 high-profile teams as entries, but fewer than a third had a shot of making it straight into the new tournament, which will be held Aug. 19 and 20 at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center in New York City. It will conclude four days before the singles main draws begin.<\/p>\n

Teams with players who have the eight lowest combined singles rankings gain automatic entry. There are automatic places for defending men\u2019s singles champion Jannik Sinner<\/a>, Wimbledon champion Iga \u015awi\u0105tek<\/a> and last year\u2019s U.S. Open finalist Taylor Fritz, but Carlos Alcaraz\u2019s partnership with Emma Raducanu<\/a>, and 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic and compatriot Olga Danilovi\u0107, both required wild cards.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s tough getting into a mixed doubles Grand Slam these days \u2014 well, this one, at least, Kate\u0159ina Siniakov\u00e1 and Marcelo Ar\u00e9valo, two of the best doubles players in the world, are on the outside looking in.<\/p>\n

U.S. Open mixed doubles direct entries<\/p>\n

Player 1Player 2Combined singles ranking<\/p>\n

Emma Navarro (11)<\/p>\n

Jannik Sinner (1)<\/p>\n

12<\/p>\n

Paula Badosa (10)<\/p>\n

Jack Draper (5)<\/p>\n

15<\/p>\n

Iga \u015awi\u0105tek (3)<\/p>\n

Casper Ruud (13)<\/p>\n

16<\/p>\n

Elena Rybakina (12)<\/p>\n

Taylor Fritz (4)<\/p>\n

16<\/p>\n

Amanda Anisimova (7)<\/p>\n

Holger Rune (9)<\/p>\n

16<\/p>\n

Belinda Bencic (15*)<\/p>\n

Alexander Zverev (3)<\/p>\n

18<\/p>\n

Jessica Pegula (4)<\/p>\n

Tommy Paul (15)<\/p>\n

19<\/p>\n

Mirra Andreeva (5)<\/p>\n

Daniil Medvedev (14)<\/p>\n

19<\/p>\n

*Belinda Bencic entered with a special ranking of world No. 15. She is currently world No. 20.<\/p>\n

The first six wild card entries are as follows:<\/p>\n

Emma Raducanu and Carlos Alcaraz
\nMadison Keys and Frances Tiafoe
\nOlga Danilovi\u0107 and Novak Djokovic
\nTaylor Townsend and Ben Shelton
\nSara Errani and Andrea Vavassori
\nVenus Williams and Reilly Opelka<\/p>\n

The decision on the remaining two wild cards will be a test of the U.S. Open\u2019s less-than-unspoken priorities for a mixed doubles event designed to pack two stadiums over two days and draw eyeballs to the ESPN coverage of the event. That means getting the most famous stars to play, with $1 million for the winning team, eschewing any concerns about who is actually the best at the discipline.<\/p>\n

Townsend being the new world No. 1 in doubles, and Siniakov\u00e1 being the person she overtook to get there, is already secondary to the stardom factor. Townsend and Shelton getting a wild card has more to do with their pairing, bringing together the hot new thing of American men\u2019s tennis and a three-time Grand Slam semifinalist with a legitimate doubles star. They may actually be a good pick to win the thing. They played mixed in New York together before, reaching the semifinals in 2023, and Shelton played doubles this year with Rohan Bopanna, a former men\u2019s world No. 1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Alcaraz and Raducanu partnership is gold dust, and both have endorsement deals with Evian, which is a U.S. Open sponsor. Williams, the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion and 45-year-old Washington Open wild card who thrilled crowds in D.C., is an easy pick.<\/p>\n

She beat the world No. 35 Peyton Stearns in singles and won a doubles match with Hailey Baptiste. If a Williams sister is offering up her services to a tournament, she usually gets in. And there\u2019s the small matter of her 16 Grand Slam doubles titles, two of them in mixed.<\/p>\n

One player missing is Aryna Sabalenka, whose proposed partner, Grigor Dimitrov, withdrew with the pectoral muscle injury he sustained at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

One of the most compelling athletes in the sport, Sabalenka has been on something of a reputation-enhancement campaign since her implosion in the French Open final and during the ensuing news conference, when she said Coco Gauff didn\u2019t win as much as she lost. It was raw, honest and poor form all at once, and it garnered a lot of online attention, most of it negative. She would be in line for a wild card if she entered, but with whom?<\/p>\n

What to do with Osaka and Kyrgios, who have not been setting the scoreboards alight for some time but had signed up for the tournament? When it comes to recognition in the wider sporting world, there is no argument against their inclusion. But Kyrgios has barely played professional tennis this year.<\/p>\n

Doubles players have criticized the USTA for devaluing a Grand Slam trophy. USTA executives have responded that not enough people were watching or even thinking about mixed doubles. Nothing, they argue, devalues an event more than that.<\/p>\n

So out went the 32-team tournament played alongside the singles events. In came first-to-four-games sets, with no-ad scoring and a match tiebreak at a set apiece. The business will get done well ahead of the singles, giving players a competitive warm-up and the broader tournament a huge promotional boost. The start of the U.S. Open proper on Aug. 24 should not take anyone by surprise.<\/p>\n

The big surprise might be if all the players who have raised their hands to play actually play. The biggest complication might be the singles finals of the Cincinnati Open, which will take place on Monday, Aug. 18, the day before the mixed doubles start. Two years ago, Alcaraz and Djokovic slugged it out for nearly four hours in the men\u2019s final, in the intense Ohio summer heat. Would they have gotten on a plane and flown in for mixed doubles the next morning? Action is supposed to get underway beginning at 11 a.m. Tuesday the 19th.<\/p>\n

Theoretically, the USTA will have a few teams on reserve as injuries and scheduling conflicts arise. Who\u2019s going to agree to that? Maybe the actual doubles players of renown, people such as Siniakov\u00e1 and Ar\u00e9valo, or Desirae Krawczyk and Evan King, or Hsieh Su-wei and Jan Zieli\u0144ski. $1 million is $1 million after all \u2014 and the actual doubles players think they have a built-in advantage.\u00a0 Olympic results from last year go some distance toward proving that point.<\/p>\n

With two wild cards not to be announced until later \u2014 and considering no one asked for this input \u2014 here\u2019s who seems most likely to gain entry.<\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka and TK. The women\u2019s world No. 1 has to be at the party, but with whom? Jo\u00e3o Fonseca is free.
\nKate\u0159ina Siniakov\u00e1 and Marcelo Ar\u00e9valo. Tennis elegance and doubles legitimacy.<\/p>\n

And then:<\/p>\n

Naomi Osaka and Nick Kyrgios. Osaka, a two-time U.S. Open winner and four-time Grand Slam champion, should get to play with anyone, even a faded star such as Kyrgios, who remains a magnet for casual fans.
\nKatie Boulter and Alex de Minaur. They\u2019re engaged, they\u2019re the adults in the room. Lower the velvet rope for these two.
\nGaby Dabrowski and F\u00e9lix Auger-Aliassime. Consider it an olive branch to Canada.
\nIva Jovi\u0107 and Jenson Brooksby. Team California can bring more youth vibes with Jovi\u0107, who is 17.<\/p>\n

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