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Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik win the US Open mixed doubles championship
Muchova and Mensik won the title Wednesday night in their first time playing together, beating Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli 6-3, 1-6 (10-6).
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Jakub Mensik texted Karolina Muchova on the eve of the U.S. Open mixed doubles tournament so they could coordinate their outfits. Looking good on the court is important, he figured.
Now they look like a million bucks.
Muchova and Mensik won the title Wednesday night in their first time playing together, beating Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli 6-3, 1-6 (10-6).
The Czech duo, wearing the same pink tops and maroon bottoms they settled on Monday, pulled out match tiebreakers in both matches on the second night of the two-day event, fueled by Mensik's powerful serve combined with some good hands near the net. He put away the final with an ace to earn $1 million for him and Muchova to share.
“I think at the end, really the matching outfit made the difference for us,” Muchova said.
They were a point from losing in the semifinals, erasing two match points and running off the final four to edge Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev 5-4 (6), 3-5 (11-9).
Quite a performance, considering Mensik said he had never played in a mixed doubles event.
“My first mixed doubles, 100% win rate,” he said.
Bencic and Cobolli rallied to end the run of spouses Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils in the first semifinal with a 4-5 (7), 4-1 (10-5) victory.
They appeared headed toward a matchup with Andreeva and Rublev, who were smiling and pumping their fists after opening the lead in the match tiebreaker. Muchova flung her racket to the court in disgust after missing a volley that gave the Russians a 7-5 lead.
But the Wimbledon women’s runner-up never lost belief, thanks in part to her hard-serving partner, who will turn 21 next week.
When Mensik first asked Muchova to play, she told him to improve his ranking. When the U.S. Open mixed doubles tournament was revamped last year, direct qualification was based on the combined singles rankings of the two players.
Mensik then did his part by reaching the semifinals of the French Open.
“I put a little pressure on him, but in a fun way. It worked,” Muchova said. “I’m happy we managed and we got in, that we are here now.”
The final was the only match of the tournament that resembled a regular match, with standard sets to six games and a tiebreaker at 6-all. Through the first three rounds, sets were to four games, with a tiebreaker at 4-all.
Bencic and Cobolli knocked Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz out of the tournament Tuesday in the quarterfinals.
Then they dropped a set for the first time in the tournament in the semis, but began to dominate midway through the second set, winning the final 11 points to force the match tiebreaker. But they couldn't win their second one in the final.
“This year is already the second final. I never expected in my life to play a Grand Slam,” said Cobolli, this year's French Open runner-up. “This is mixed but still something that you never forget.”
It was the second year of the new format in mixed doubles, with the event shortened and moved to the week before the singles main draw begins, with the U.S. Tennis Association hoping that would get top singles players to compete.
Plenty of top names did compete but much of the star power, including Williams and Alcaraz, went out early. Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic lost their opening match, as did Alex Eala and Felix Auger-Aliassime, and Jessica Pegula and Taylor Fritz.
That could explain a good number of empty seats in Ashe, particularly after both semifinals went the distance and pushed the start of the final back toward nearly 11 p.m. EDT.
None of the teams featuring doubles specialists survived to the final four, leaving an opening for some players still seeking Grand Slam glory such as Rublev, who has fallen 10 times in major quarterfinals.
Svitolina and Monfils, who have both reached the U.S. Open singles semifinals, accepted a wild card to team up for the first time. Married since 2021, they were trying to win a championship in Monfils's final Grand Slam appearance before he retires, on Sept. 1, when he turns 40.
They pulled out a back-and-forth tiebreaker in the first set in which they blew a 4-0 lead, then erased two set points. They went ahead 8-7 when Bencic tried to hit a cross-court backhand but nailed Cobolli, who had strayed into the middle. Cobolli then double-faulted to lose the set.
Bencic and Cobolli recovered, but then had a poor start to the final after a long break between matches. The Czechs pounced quickly, then finished well late.
Their biggest challenge may have been the outfit selection. Mensik apparently wasn't familiar with the word maroon.
Now he knows and loves it.
“My favorite color right now is pink and maroon, that’s for sure,” he said.
