The Hyped Revival of Mixed Doubles

Last year, after Carlos Alcaraz beat Miomir Kecmanović in the fourth round of the Australian Open, Jim Courier asked Alcaraz, in an interview on the field, that his favorite players were. “Well, I’m a big fan of tennis,” started Alcaraz. He won some names: Daniil Medvedev, Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner. Courier pressed it: what about women? “Well, I also look at WTA,” said Alcaraz. “Uhhhhhh,” he said, “and put his hand in his thick black hair. He laughs nervously, while the crowd whispered. “No, I mean, when I can obviously. Uh, when I turn on the TV, if it’s WTA, ATP, whatever, I like to watch it, of course.”

Subsequently, Alcaraz was criticized for her inability to appoint a single tennis player, but I didn’t think about it much. With a few notable exceptions, most of the stars of men of tennis men are not frank champions of gender equality and, in addition, I would have trouble named my own children if I had forced it to do so in front of fifteen thousand people, not to mention the television cameras. If anything, the expectation that Alcaraz should look at female tennis has spoken to the relative egalitarianism of the sport he plays. How often is Anthony Edwards invited to account for his WNBA visualization habits? Then I checked X and I saw that Alcaraz had later admitted that he had been too nervous to give his real answer, the young English player Emma Raducanu. For what? Because, he said, he was “shy with girls”. WaitI thought, Is it a real quote? It was not the case, even if it was done as if it were.

I had the same reaction at the end of June, when I read that Raducanu and Alcaraz would associate with the aim of participating in the mixed and high “mixed” championship at the US Open this summer. It is not real, it is? This time, however, it was, and I should have seen him coming. In February, the United States Tennis Association, which welcomed the US Open, announced that the mixed double tournament would be held on August 19 and 20, in the middle of what is known as the Fan Week, during the qualification tournament before the traditional start of the main draw. Participants would be decided by a new formula. Instead of the thirty -two usual teams, there would be sixteen – the eight best rankings combined in simple, as well as eight jokers. Given the framing of the reinvention of the tournament, there is no doubt that most, if not all, of these jokers, which are chosen at the discretion of the tournament, would also understand the most famous players. The fact, clearly, was to attract as much attention as possible. And no one, unless you return from Serena Williams, would no longer draw attention than the five -time winner of the Slam of puppy Alcaraz and Raducanu, a British Telegenic who was yielded to glory when she won the US Open as a qualifier four years ago. But what end?

The fact that men and women can seriously compete in legitimate competition have always been part of the recreational attraction of tennis – and part of what makes it unique as spectator sport. The first title of the Grand Slam of the Mixed Doubles was awarded in 1892, during the tournament now known as US Open. The winners were an American man, Clarence Hobart, and an Irishman, Mabel Cahill. Cahill also won the titles of single and women of women – and, roughly at the same time, published a book entitled “Her Playphings: Men”, which was swept. For the next century, it was standard for many best game players – from Suzanne Lenglen to Rod Laver, from Martina Navratilova to Martina Hingis – to play mixed doubles in addition to simple and double. A big home was a big home.

But, as sport became more physically trying and the awards for solo success have started to considerably overcome those of the doubles, fewer and fewer athletes played double the double, in particular on the male tour, where the matches during the majors were longer – sets of singles instead of the three years – and the financial incentives were generally more dry. And even less played with a different partner. While sport became more focused on stars, simple matches have gained a much larger weight. A big home was not a big slam after all. He became a routine so that the best players withdraw double matches if they have deepened in the draw. The doubles have become dominated by specialists, especially among men. (There have been high -level women, especially the largest American star, Coco Gauff, which is a former world n ° 1 in doubles, but they almost always focus on long -term singles.) Talent, said that people have exhausted from discipline in double; However, the level of the game has remained high and many fans are devoted to it. Double fans know the faster rhythm of the points of the game, the game of net ping-ping, the extreme angles and the masterful towers that the players deploy on their shots; And they understand the tactical nuances and complex chemicals of teamwork. But the mixed doubles, in particular, have become a reflection afterwards to Grand Slam. The matches are shoe in tournaments, often on outdoor land and at odd moments. Last year, the final of mixed doubles of the United States, won by Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, was played on Thursday, in front of a half-empty crowd. They divided a price of two hundred thousand dollars. Simple tournament winners obtained $ 3.6 million.

This year, mixed double champions will divide a million dollars. The finalists will have four hundred thousand. The matches will be played on performance land and broadcast on ESPN. In terms of buzz, the strategy is already a success. Even people who do not follow the doubles, including me, talk about it. The tournament will be able to sell tickets, satisfy its television partners and goose interest as never before. Fans want to see stars, and this approach offers a high concentration, in a new situation. It will probably be quite fun. It is easy to justify the changes: the tournament could bring new fans, initiate more people to double mixed, encourage more participation in tennis and highlight the complementary qualities of male and female tennis played on the same scene. Double players, who are already faced with reduced opportunities, because visits put more resources in simple, can suffer. But there is no rule that an organization must support the least successful and least lucrative part of your business. The new format is good for business.

But what East he? A tennis tournament is an entertainment vehicle, but it is also a sporting competition, not a popularity competition. Attention can be converted into money, but it is not the equivalent of value. A popularity competition is an exhibition, and that’s what it looks like. To persuade the best players to play, the tournament assured that the matches did not interfere with their ambitions in the single tournament – that’s why it is now a two -day event. The match rating format has been changed to make this period shortened possible: the sets are the first to four games, with a third possible set replaced by a ten -point equal break. Over the past two months, the tournament has transformed the process of determining the domain into its own type of reality TV, announcing periodically who has put its name, which is inside, which has come out. Fourteen of the sixteen teams have been chosen so far – with some housewives due to injuries – and some of them are delicious. Venus Williams and Reilly Opelka should have a joker in the Super Bowl, as far as I am concerned. But only one couple – the reigning champions, Errani and Vavassori – has an extensive success together. The best player in the world in doubles, Taylor Townsend, plays, but her inclusion probably has more to do with his teammate, Ben Shelton, who happens to be an American in the top ten in simple. The second double woman, Kateřina Siniaková – who was just overwhelmed by Townsend for first place – in order to play alongside the men of men n ° 1, Marcelo Arévalo, but so far, at least, they are not included in the competition. “When two world n ° 1 in doubles do not enter the tournament, there is probably nothing to say,” said Siniaková to a Czech journalist.

Last year, Siniaková, playing alongside Tomáš Machá, won an Olympic gold medal; They have crushed Medvedev and Mirra Andreeva, who are among the fourteen pairs so far confirmed to play the US Open, as happened. Siniaková and Arévalo can still have a chance, because injuries and absences continue to shake the pairs. Navarro, who had been twinned with the sinner, is one of those who withdrew, which is probably as well; The two players had never spoken before their respective management teams submit their names together. And Sinner is still alive at the Cincinnati Open, who will play his final less than a day before the game of mixed doubles begins at the US Open. (So, moreover, it is Alcaraz.) It may be that the combined talent of the best players of simple is greater than a long -standing double team. But nevertheless, it would be interesting to watch them try. This is not what is happening here.

Instead, the United States Open gives us a series of reality meetings – really. (This is another thing that I had to verify the facts.) It is called “Game, Set, Matchmaker” and, in him, a skater of ice patina that has become an instructor of Pilates will go to dates with seven men around the US Open park. Double more mixed! And more of what young people want, which is apparently derivatives of the program “Love Island”. This brings us back to Raducanu and Alcaraz, who would have dated years, mainly on the basis, it seems to know the names of each other. The United States opens, naturally but cynically, has used them to direct the media video for competition. It does not matter that Alcaraz’s progress in the Cincinnati final on Monday will make things difficult – or perhaps impossible – to play in New York on Tuesday. Or that neither Alcaraz nor Raducanu played many doubles, even less together. “I have known Emma for a long time ago,” said Alcaraz, their twinning. Raducanu spoke of a “real connection”. I would be surprised if their management teams were not involved. Raducanu responded once a few words friendly from Alcaraz after being operated; This post, too, turned out to be false. The two were spotted once saying hello, remotely, in the heating area of the Madrid Open, and recently made an event together for Evian, which sponsors them both. They promoted craft water. Tabloids, on the other hand, have been shipping them for months. ♦