Huge controversy after US Open changes mixed doubles format: "Injustice", "disrespect", "money above tennis"

US Open has announced big changes regarding the 2025 edition. The competition will last one day longer (from Sunday, August 24 to Sunday, September 7), but the most profound change will come with the mixed doubles category. And it has received a very angry response from tennis players.

Instead of being played in during the two weeks of the tournament, the doubles mixed category will be played early, on August 19-20. However, big changes in the format and rules means it no longer can be considered an equal category, and will be instead a standalone event, with a "pseudo-exhibition focused only on entertainment and show", in the words of Italian players Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, last years mixed doubles winners.

In this competition (played on a Tuesday and Wednesday, during the qualification stage) before the main tournament, sets will only last four games instead of six, without the need of advantage (the first couple to reach four sets win the set). Instead of a third set, a 10-point tie-break would happen. This will make the matches shorter and "more exciting" to watch. And, as it happens outside of the main event, more pro tennis players would be interested in playing them (or that's what US Open hopes).

The intention of the US Open is to put "mixed doubles front and centre". But, naturally, this has received a significant backlash from tennis players who regularly play in mixed doubles, seeing how their category is being blurred and battered, turned into a spectacle rather than a legitimate category.

"A profound injustice", say last year's mixed doubles US Open winners

There is a precedent: last year, US Open organised an exhibition tournament called "US Open Mixed Madness", which saw Paula Badosa and Stefanos Tsitsipas win. They are more renowned players than the Italians Errani and Vavassori, who are seeing how the organisation is leaving them behind, almost erasing them from memory, by cancelling the mixed doubles category and turning it into... something else.

"We see it as a profound injustice, that disrespect an entire category of players", said the Italians, complaining that this "puts money above tennis" and was made without consulting anyone.

Other players have also raised their voices, like Ellen Perez: "Tell us that you think doubles players are trash, that tradition is overrated and job opportunity is a thing of the past without actually saying it".