Carlos Alcaraz, Serena Williams Stun In Disaster Day For Doubles Specialists At US Open

With many doubles specialists upset that the mixed doubles event at the US Open has shifted to a singles-style format, they didn’t back themselves on day one.

Of the 32 doubles players in the draw, only nine of them were doubles specialists. Four doubles specialist teams entered, and world No. 5 player Taylor Townsend teamed up with Roland Garros Champion Sascha Zverev. Every single one of those nine players was eliminated on day one by singles players.

Doubles and singles are two completely different styles of the sport, and two doubles specialist teams had to qualify to get into the event, including Henry Patten and Katerina Siniakova, the number 1 doubles players in the world on the men’s and women’s side, respectively.

There was a lot of discourse about how it was unfair that they had to qualify while the singles players got in automatically. The argument was that singles players bring the eyeballs, while also giving the best doubles players in the world a chance to compete. During qualifying, Siniakova expressed her displeasure at having to qualify for a doubles tournament while being number one in the world.

Unfortunately, like everyone else, they did not back up their argument that they are the better doubles players. Patten and Siniakova were one of four doubles specialist teams eliminated on day one, losing to Elina Svitolina and her husband, the retiring Gael Monfils. This was a massive upset, as Monfils and Svitolina were up to four-to-one on some odds boards. Many people considered them a charity wild card team as part of Monfils’ farewell tour. They were the longest shot pre-tournament to win the event.

They were not the only team to lose in such fashion, as the headlining team of Carlos Alcaraz and Serena Williams came back from a break down and bulldozed their way through the doubles specialist team of Lloyd Glasspool and Erin Routliffe in another huge upset. Alcaraz and Williams would go on to lose in round two, but it was one more round than they were expected to make it to.

The other doubles specialists also lost to teams made up of singles players, in what seemed like a rattling experience for many of them. The team of Routliffe and Glasspool looked stunned, making mistakes they never make on the doubles court. Perhaps the pressure of being the favorite on such a big stage against such big names got to them, and they were not all able to handle that pressure.

The lone doubles specialist team in last year’s draw to win the title, Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, began their defense with a first-set win over singles stars Andrey Rublev and Mirra Andreeva, but in a final-set tiebreak, the defending champions exited in the first round.

Errani and Vavassori winning the title as the lone doubles team last year upset many people who felt singles players should have had all the spots, and it helped explain why there were more doubles specialists in the draw this year.

It is common for doubles specialists to beat singles teams in main draws on both the men’s and women’s doubles sides. With added pressure now on the doubles specialists on a huge stage this year at the US Open, they folded and were outclassed throughout the day by the singles players.

This mixed doubles format at the US Open is only two years old, so it will be interesting to see what changes they make next year after this shocking performance from the doubles players. No matter what happens today, the US Open mixed doubles champion will be a team of two singles players.

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Article by Robert Blute