Bill Simons
Mixed doubles is everything and nothing.
At many clubs it’s front and center – millions love it. But, on tour, it’s long been dismissed as a nothing-burger. The conventional wisdom has long been clear: “Mixed doubles is barely worth our attention.”
Maybe Reilly Opelka got it right. He said mixed doubles should be cancelled – it’s a game for failed singles players and its prize money should be given to singles players who are struggling to make it.
But mixed doubles also has its backers. The highly social game is a staple at clubs and parks. Plus, it’s a handy way for journeymen pros to pick up much-needed cash, and it fills the void at the end of Slams, when there are few scheduled matches.
Truth be told, mixed doubles has long been living in the margins. But, out of nowhere, the US Open decided to mix things up with the most daring and impactful tennis innovation since the Laver Cup: an invitational tourney featuring a dazzling collection of duos: Venus Williams and Opelka, Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu, Frances Tiafoe and Madison Keys, Ben Shelton and Taylor Townsend, Taylor Fritz and Elena Rybakina, Jack Draper and Jessica Pegula, Amanda Anisimova and Holger Rune, Alexander Zverev and Belinda Bencic and Daniil Medvedev and Mirra Andreeva.
The winners will bank a cool $1 million (compared to $200,000 last year). It will be staged on the Open’s two biggest courts before the tourney begins, during Fan Week on August 18 and 19, and it will feature a greatly streamlined scoring system. Goodness, it’s the first Slam to have a protein sponsor.
Critics were quick to howl. “This isn’t a Slam tourney, it’s just an exo! It takes money from hard-working pros who are struggling to survive.” Sara Errani, who won last year’s Open mixed with Andreas Vavassori and is into this year’s tourney, said the event is a “pseudo-exhibition focused only on entertainment and show…We see it as a profound injustice that disrespects an entire category of players.”
But clearly, the new format has hit gold, and is drawing much attention to a part of the game that had been largely ignored. Taylor Fritz gushed, “Being able to play it before the Open week starts is amazing. I’m super excited!”
So here’s our brief history of the glorious and sometimes inglorious history of mixed doubles.
THE MIXED MATCH THAT CHANGED TENNIS HISTORY: We got some good news. Chris Evert wrote us and said our mixed doubles history is hilarious. Then she politely added, “The only thing you missed is Jimmy [Connors] and I reaching the [1974 US] Open finals, and I can’t remember who we played but the guy was an Aussie, I know he was a junior champion. [Note: it was Geoff Masters.] Anyway he hit every ball at me, hard, and Jimmy didn’t hit one ball to the girl [Pam Teeguarden] because he said he was a “gentleman,” and I got pissy with him and we lost…That might have been the beginning of the end of our relationship.”
WHAT A SHOCK – McENROE SAID SOMETHING INAPPROPRIATE: After Steffi Graf told John McEnroe that she wanted to rest up for her 1999 Wimbledon singles final rather than play the mixed doubles final with him, Mac let ‘er rip, telling Andre Agassi in the locker room, “Can you believe what that f–g bitch did to me?” Little did he know that Andre had just started courting Steffi and was planning to have dinner that night with his wife-to-be.
AIN’T IT THE TRUTH? It’s said that physical intimacy often leads to mixed doubles but mixed doubles hardly ever leads to physical intimacy.
BEST GARBAGE STAT: Forty-four years ago, Inside Tennis claimed that mixed doubles was the second leading cause of divorce in America between 1974 and 1978, ranking just behind mental cruelty and just ahead of forgetting to take out the garbage.
THE MAN WHO DIDN’T MOON THE QUEEN: Murphy Jensen is the most famous no-show in doubles history. He skipped out of his 1995 Wimbledon mixed match to go fishing in Scotland. Later he dismissed his crime, contending, “It’s not like I mooned the Queen…What’s amazing is that I got more press for not showing up than for winning the French Open [doubles with my brother Luke].”
THE CORE SPIRITUAL TRUTH OF MIXED DOUBLES: It’s said that it’s best to choose a mixed doubles partner who has the same religious beliefs you have because of the distinct advantage of being able to pray in unison for your opponent’s topspin lobs to go long.
WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? The iconic Rod Laver claimed, “An otherwise happily married couple may turn a mixed doubles game into a scene from ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.’”
FADING FEDERER ODDS: Years ago, the odds were 10,000-1 that within 25 years there would be a Wimbledon mixed doubles final featuring Federer’s four children. But neither of Roger’s 15-year-old twin daughters has a passion for the game. Federer’s 11-year old sons, Leo and Lenny, did go into the belly of the beast – the twins briefly trained at the Nadal Tennis Academy.
JUST WONDERING: Will the powerful men in the Open draw go all out, or will they take it a bit easy…If the mixed doubles at the Open are a big success, will other tourneys soon follow suit…Inch for inch, is 5’ 2” Rosie Casals the best mixed doubles player in history?
HOW TO SURVIVE MIXED DOUBLES: Surviving mixed doubles with your sanity intact is not impossible. Inside Tennis’ Greg Hoffman noted that, “Once you learn that the game is designed to cause trouble for anyone who isn’t a legitimate candidate for sainthood and once you accept the fact that you’ll never find a partner who is as wonderful as you are and once you are able to mask your true emotions while ignoring your partner’s inability to do the same, you’ll have it made. And that’s all there is to it.”
MIXED VIBES ON MIXED DOUBLES: Once, when asked why they weren’t playing mixed doubles at the US Open, the Bryan brothers replied, “With mixed, your heart has to be in it…You have to be real aggressive and physical, poaching and smiling with the girl, and you have to be engaged. We don’t treat it as a high priority.”
Still, collectively the brothers won five US Open mixed titles.
A BUMP IN THE ROAD: Liezel Huber said that her partner, Bob Bryan, wanted to “chest bump, chest bump, chest bump. I’m like, ‘No! Do it with your girlfriend! Don’t chest bump me!’”
THE FIRST LADY OF MIXED DOUBLES: Hillary Clinton told Inside Tennis, “I used to bounce the ball on my racket, and I got a few little trophies…The last tournament I won was a mixed doubles in Fayetteville, Tennessee.” She then sighed and explained that, on her trophy, the man was huge and the woman was tiny.
SPEAKING OF POLITICIANS: President Franklin Roosevelt married his fifth cousin Eleanor. His first cousins, Grace and Ellen, won the US mixed titles in 1889 and 1893.
ANONYMITY IS GOOD: Humorist Greg Hoffman noted, “The founders of mixed doubles aren’t known. So their descendants are everlastingly grateful, because it’s enabled them to avoid the brutal burden of being vilified by genealogical association. After all, millions of players have cursed mixed doubles over the years, because it’s a time bomb that is quite capable of rupturing 20-year-old friendships or marriages in less than two and a half sets.”
OUR FAVORITE ONE-HIT WONDER: Mary Carillo has long been a broadcasting wonder. But on court, she was one of the game’s great one-hit wonders, winning the 1977 French Open with Johnny Mac. The duo are the only New Yawkers to win a mixed Slam in the Open era.
A NEW YORK 49er: Martina Navritalova finally retired after capturing the 2006 US Open mixed doubles with Bob Bryan. It was her 59th Slam title – and she was 49.
COURT RULES: Margaret Court is the best mixed player in history, winning 21 mixed titles, including eight at the US Open. Darlene Hart won 15 mixed crowns, Billie Jean King and Owen Davidson are next with 11 each.
THE BEST FIRST NAME IN MIXED DOUBLES: Martina – Navratilova won ten mixed doubles Slam titles, Hingis won seven.
SHE STANDS FOR MANKIND: Some finish playing mixed doubles and promptly cuss and curse their partner. Not Leander Paes. He offered the greatest homage to his mixed doubles partner saying that Martina Navratilova “is a legend in every town and village across the globe. She doesn’t only stand for our sport, she stands for mankind. Her athleticism, her [essence] as a human being, her character to do things her way is just fantastic.”
HINGIS’ HOT RUN: Martina Hingis won her last singles Slam in Melbourne in 1999. Sixteen years later, from 2015-2017, she won six out of 12 mixed Slam titles.
THE BEST MIXED DOUBLES IMAGE EVER? We’re prejudiced, but we think the Dick Tracy-like image on this post by the late Joan Edwards is the best mixed doubles image ever. It was the cover of our August 1981 issue, our fifth issue.
FAST FACT: Artist Joan Edwards’ best mixed doubles win came when she met her future husband, writer Joel Drucker, when they both worked at Inside Tennis.
THE BEST NAME EVER FOR A MIXED TOURNEY : Tennis marketing whiz Karen Scott Happer recalled that for years, her and her husband Marshall, played in the annual mixed tourney at the Stamford Connecticut Yacht Club that wascalled, “The Final Papers.”
WHAT A TRADITION: Mixed doubles was first played at the US Open in 1887.
GO FIGURE: The only USTA President to win the US Open mixed was Patrick Galbraith, who prevailed in 1994…The only coaching legend to win the US Open mixed was Aussie Harry Hopman.
BEST OF THE BEST: Two GOATS did face off in mixed. Roger Federer, along with Belinda Bencic, prevailed over Serena and Frances Tiafoe in a Hopman Cup match.
MURRAY’S MIXED RESULTS: Not surprisingly, in 2019, when Serena and Andy Murray teamed up to reach the third round, fans packed the Wimbledon stands to see the duo, dubbed “Mur-ena.”…In 2024, there was great buzz when Emma Raducanu was scheduled to play with Andy, but, amidst controversy, she pulled out.
FOLLOW THE MONEY: Swede Jonas Bjorkman said of Canadian Danny Nestor (who won a total of 12 Slams), “He’s sticking around for the mixed doubles – he never wants to miss an opportunity when cash is involved.”
THE FAMILY THAT PLAYS TOGETHER WINS TOGETHER – SOMETIMES: The only family teams to win mixed doubles in the Open Era were Tracy and John Austin at Wimbledon in 1980 and Cara and Wayne Black at the 2002 French Open and Wimbledon.
