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

With many doubles specialists upset that the mixed doubles event in its new format at the US Open has turned into an event for singles players, they did not back themselves up on day one.

Of the 32 doubles players in the draw, only nine of them were doubles specialists. There were four doubles specialist teams, while top-5 player in the world 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 of the doubles specialist teams had to qualify to get into the event, including the team of Henry Patten and Katerina Siniakova, who are 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 a chance to have the best doubles players in the world compete. During qualifying, Siniakova expressed her displeasure with the decision of 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 the four doubles specialist teams to be 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 comprised of singles players, in what seemed to be a rattling expereince for a lot 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 all were not able to handle that pressure.

The lone doubles specialist team last year in the draw who won the title, Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, began their defense with a victory in the first set against singles stars Andrey Rublev and Mirra Andreeva, but in a final-set tiebreak it was a first-round exit for the defending champions.

Errani and Vavassori winning the title as the lone doubles team last year was the reason many people were upset that singles players got all the spots, and it was 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 the changes made next year after this shocking performance from the doubles players. No matter what ends up happening today, the US Open mixed doubles champion will be a team of two singles players.

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Article by Robert Blute