NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 09: Coco Gauff of the United States reacts after defeating Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in their Women’s Singles Final match on Day Thirteen of the 2023 US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 09, 2023 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
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Just about everybody who’s anybody in tennis is playing the reimagined Mixed Doubles event with the $1 million prize at the U.S. Open next week.
Everybody except Coco Gauff, that is.
The 2023 U.S. Open singles champ is conspicuously missing from the new 16-team event that runs Aug. 19-20 because she doesn’t “want to waste mental energy” ahead of the singles draw beginning Aug 24.
“For me, it was just because I know the free week of the U.S. Open is already packed for me, for sponsor things, and it was just like a whole other thing,” No. 2 seeded Gauff said this week at the Cincinnati Open, where she has advanced to the quarterfinals Friday night against No. 7 Jasmine Paolini. “And I’m very competitive; if I were to lose, I would not be happy… So, I didn’t want to waste mental energy on that.”
Among the men, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe are all playing Mixed Doubles at the U.S. Open. The women include Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys and Venus Williams.
Here are the teams:
Emma Navarro and Jannik Sinner
Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud
Elena Rybakina and Taylor Fritz
Amanda Anisimova and Holger Rune
Belinda Bencic and Alexander Zverev
Jessica Pegula and Tommy Paul
Mirra Andreeva and Daniil Medvedev
WILD CARDS
Madison Keys and Frances Tiafoe
Olga Danilovic and Novak Djokovic
Emma Raducanu and Carlos Alcaraz
Taylor Townsend and Ben Shelton
Venus Williams and Reilly Opelka
Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori
The new event is not without controversy, as doubles players feel they are being “robbed” of the chance to compete in a Grand Slam tournament at the expense of big-name singles players who are more likely to draw fans. Still, the defending U.S. Open Mixed champs – Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori – are competing.
“I’m honoured that they asked me to play,” Gauff said. “It’s going to be great, it’s going to be fun and the fans will really enjoy it. At the same time, how they went about it, I didn’t think was really great… You guys went rogue and changed the format and didn’t tell anybody. You just did it. Did you talk to the players? Did you get their input?”
On top of that, an additional complication for players is that the Cincinnati Open finals are on Monday and the U.S. Open Mixed Doubles begins Tuesday.
“Then on top of the sponsor stuff, the pre-week, and then knowing that this finished on Monday and potentially having to play on Tuesday… I just knew it wasn’t going to work out for me, scheduling-wise,” Gauff said. “I plan my sponsor weeks literally like a year out, sometimes a year and a half out. And when this whole thing was coming up, I was already booked and busy.”.