British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

9vicman · Futures qualifying

Week 34 - US Open - Flushing Meadows, New York, NY, USA (hard) - MIXED DOUBLES

christ · Futures level

I struggle to see how an invitational exhibition tournament played using a different scoring system to tennis can be considered as an official tournament in any way shape or form. What if Wimbledon decided that they would only allow English players, and all matches would be decided by playing Rock-Paper-Scissors, because they could get more money by using the courts to support a gardening competition?

Surely to be a Grand Slam it has to be played as a Grand Slam, with entry according to the rules of Grand Slams?

... or to be an internationally recognised tennis tournament it has to be played as a tennis tournament, with entry according to the rules of internationally recognised tennis tournaments?

"US Open Mixed Invitational Exhibition Grand Slam Champions" doesn't really cut it for me, no matter how attractive the pairings.

... and judging by the entry list confusion, it appears to only have limited interest for the players and organisers, too.

goldfish · Futures level

Totally agree Christ - ridiculous exhibition tournament.

Var · Futures qualifying

goldfish wrote:
Totally agree Christ - ridiculous exhibition tournament.

I agree. They need to rename it. How can the winners be grand slam spchampionschampions in the abbreviated format they are using? I think personally the mixed doubles should continue in Slam events as they were. This new event needs to be renamed so the nomenclature more accurately represents the characteristics. IE invitation would be a good addition. Get rid of the word Open as it isnt Open per se.

-- Edited by Var on Sunday 17th of August 2025 10:44:25 AM

9vicman · Futures qualifying

Meanwhile expect to see the traditional mixed doubles trophy come out Wednesday. And bite your collective tongues...

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Its digressing but Id actually like to see them bolster the mixed. Theres 4 mixed events all year; the slams. Make them all 32 pair draws, enable entry via singles and doubles ranking, whichever is best. Give a decent prize, maybe $500k per winner. And create a points table. Like the normal races for atp and WTA. But just for the 4 slams.

Top 4 or 8 men and top 4 or 8 women ( not pairs) get into a year end final. $1m winner takes all prize. A bit like this US Open event but as year end final. Big money on the line. The top 4 or 8 men and women make 4 or 8 pairs. And then play it over 2 days/nights, maybe align it to another big event if possible that is already taking place, like the Laver Cup.

Lots of flaws but Ive also wanted them to create something like this. Or Indian Wells or Miami could host and make Aussie Open the last qualifier for it. IW already has a mixed exhibition like this USO event, so use that as the finals in March.

Just a whacky and rubbish idea but ideas at least start things off

Peter too · Tennis legend

Perhaps strange behaviour at the top of the government, where it seems anything goes and rules don't matter, is starting to permeate down to the level of sports in USA.

Blue_Belle · County player

It's Brit Vs Brit in the draw! That's funny.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

www.usopen.org/en_US/draws/mixed-doubles.html

the addict · Tennis legend

Since this is a doubles tournament, but entries based on singles I'm giving the rankngs as singles/doubles for both individuals and combined

L16:- Jessica Pegula (USA) / Jack Draper (GBR) CR9/286 (4/82+5/204) [1] v Emma Raducanu (GBR) / Carlos Alcarez (ESP) CR41/UNR (39/275+2/UNR)

9vicman · Futures qualifying

So Jon, we have an answer to our question. Wild cards can repair, as Osaka did with Monfils. And you didn't have to be on the original entry list to take part.

Was Musetti and McNally on anyone's bingo card???

-- Edited by 9vicman on Monday 18th of August 2025 06:10:17 AM

GBJ · County player

JonH comes home wrote:
Its digressing but Id actually like to see them bolster the mixed. Theres 4 mixed events all year; the slams. Make them all 32 pair draws, enable entry via singles and doubles ranking, whichever is best. Give a decent prize, maybe $500k per winner. And create a points table. Like the normal races for atp and WTA. But just for the 4 slams.

Top 4 or 8 men and top 4 or 8 women ( not pairs) get into a year end final. $1m winner takes all prize. A bit like this US Open event but as year end final. Big money on the line. The top 4 or 8 men and women make 4 or 8 pairs. And then play it over 2 days/nights, maybe align it to another big event if possible that is already taking place, like the Laver Cup.

Lots of flaws but Ive also wanted them to create something like this. Or Indian Wells or Miami could host and make Aussie Open the last qualifier for it. IW already has a mixed exhibition like this USO event, so use that as the finals in March.

Just a whacky and rubbish idea but ideas at least start things off

I like this. Not rubbish at all JonH!

GBJ · County player

Interesting to see the OOP on the usopen site - it doesn't spell it out but they've scheduled it by draw section I think - so the winners of the first match just hang around and play the winners of the second match as soon as that finishes to give a semifinalist. Then after those semifinalists are decided another quarter of the draw is started on the same court and follows the same pattern.

The same thing is happening on the second court at the same time to end with the 4 semi finals decided by the end of the day - two from each court. So I guess that Wednesday will follow the same pattern as exhausted of those quarters of the draw did.

Each match is given a not before time one hour after the previous one til the end of play that day.

I kind of like that

-- Edited by GBJ on Monday 18th of August 2025 08:06:41 AM

GBJ · County player

Brendan F wrote:
I don't think they can call it Open when they're only accepting certain players whilst the ones who would normally compete are excluded

That's a good point!

GBJ · County player

Thinking a bit more about this - I'm wondering what people think the reasons are that they didn't at least make 4 of the 16 spots open to entries based on doubles rankings to give it some kind of increased sense of legitimacy - for me that would have really made it much more palatable to call it a Grand Slam then. I would think something like that might have meant less tennis enthusiasts were put off the idea and make it seem more of an attractive event long term. To me it feels like top players might be thinking they'll give it a go this once but probably not in future years (I'm not basing that one owt I've heard just my thinking).

What do others on here feel would have been enough to make it legitimate enough as a transition into a new kind of event that might be taken seriously long term. Also what do you think is motivating the singles players to say yes to it? The prize money is that high really.