US Open organisers\u2019 controversial mixed doubles revamp has received a major boost as another of tennis\u2019 power couples have indicated that they are \u201cplanning to play\u201d.<\/p>\n
In an attempt to increase interest in the event, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) has announced a restructure of the mixed doubles with the tournament set to take place the week before the US Open<\/a> gets underway.<\/p>\n The drastic changes include the event being held across just two days, the early-round matches being best-of-three sets and first to four games with no ad scoring.<\/p>\n Prize money will shoot out and organisers hope the changes will lead to an increase in singles players competing with 16 spots up for grabs.<\/p>\n The Italian pair of Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori won the mixed doubles event last year and they earned $200,000 as a team, but that cheque will jump significantly as the 2025 winners will receive $1 million.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s tournament will see eight teams earn direct entry via their combined singles ranking while the other eight will come via wildcard entries.<\/p>\n Tennis couple Stefanos Tsitispas<\/a> and Paula Badosa \u2013 both ranked inside the top 20 \u2013 look set to compete with the former confirming their plans for the hard-court Grand Slam.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are planning to play. She\u2019s the mixed doubles partner I would always play with,\u201d the Greek said.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have any other options out there or any other female player that I would want to play mixed doubles with. She\u2019s always under my consideration and always someone I would want to share the court with.\u201d<\/p>\n Tsitsidosa \u2013 as they are known as \u2013 competed in the mixed doubles event at the US Open last year, but lost in straight sets in the first round.<\/p>\n US Open makes a big change to entice the top players \u2013 will it work?<\/a><\/p>\n Reigning US Open champions slam \u2018disrespectful\u2019 rule changes<\/a><\/p>\n Several doubles players have criticised the changes with reigning champions Errani and Vavassori issuing a joint statement to voice their unhappiness.<\/p>\n \u201cWe see it as a profound injustice that disrespects an entire category of players. We don\u2019t know at the moment if we\u2019ll have the chance to defend our title, but we hope this remains an isolated case,\u201d the Italians said.<\/p>\n But support from singles players seem to be growing as Alex de Minaur and Katie Boulter have also said they are keen to be one of the 16 teams.<\/p>\n De Minaur, who got engaged to Boulter last year, said: \u201cMe personally, I really enjoy playing mixed doubles, so I think it\u2019s going to be fun to hopefully play some mixed with Katie, which will be exciting.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I\u2019m looking purely at myself and the situation I\u2019m in, it does present an opportunity for me to play mixed doubles, which in previous years I probably wouldn\u2019t have done just because as the format is right now for a singles player, you\u2019re not really going to play mixed doubles because your priority is obviously the singles.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way it\u2019s proposed now, it definitely entices a lot more of the singles players to play, and it\u2019s an opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Stefanos Tsitsipas \u2018doesn\u2019t have any other options\u2019 as he confirms Paula Badosa plan<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" US Open organisers\u2019 controversial mixed doubles revamp has received a major boost as another of tennis\u2019 power couples have indicated that they are \u201cplanning to play\u201d. In an attempt to increase interest in the event, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) has announced a restructure of the mixed doubles with the tournament set to take […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}US Open News<\/h3>\n