On a rainy, nasty Wednesday night in Queens, Arthur Ashe Stadium was packed under a closed roof despite the start of the U.S. Open, the final tennis grand slam of the year, not officially beginning until Sunday. The week before the start of the tournament has, for the last several years, been known as fan week, where admission is free to check out qualifying matches and other ancillary attractions to boost revenue and provide a taste of the action before the real party begins.
This year, the United States Tennis Association conceived a move: shifting the mixed doubles tournament, previously treated as a relative afterthought, from the final week of the U.S. Open, where top players focused on their singles matches, to the main event of fan week. Sixteen premier duos competed on the two main courts — Ashe and Louis Armstrong Stadium — in a shortened, TV-friendly format for a prize that increased from $200,000 to $1 million. It was an experiment to boost attendance, interest, and revenue during the Tuesday and Wednesday of a fan week that’s always been treated like an amuse-bouche to the main course of the tournament’s traditional fortnight.
Top players flocked to participate. We had teams featuring Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu, Frances Tiafoe and Madison Keys, Gael Monfils and Naomi Osaka, and Ben Shelton and Taylor Townsend. And those were just duos that were bounced in Tuesday’s first round.
