Djokovic and Sabalenka pair up: 28 Slams on one team

Last year in New York the mixed doubles event was meant to be the overture to the whole tournament, a showcase where the biggest singles names walk onto court before the serious work begins. Djokovic lasted one round. He went out at the first hurdle alongside Olga Danilovic, and the whole idea fizzled out for him before it had a chance to build any momentum.

This year he goes in with a different partner and a completely different set of expectations. The initial entry list for the US Open mixed doubles, published on July 27, has Djokovic down alongside Aryna Sabalenka, the world number one. It is a combination tennis rarely produces: the most decorated player in men’s singles history and the current leading woman in the game, on the same team, on the same side of the net.

The number attached to that team speaks for itself. Between them they hold 28 Grand Slam titles, 24 for Djokovic and four for Sabalenka. This is not a doubles team in the traditional sense. These are two singles champions who have decided to spend three days in a format where reputation counts for very little and reaction at the net counts for everything.

Why is the mixed doubles played before the main draw?

The format was changed last year, and that change turned the entire competition on its head. Mixed doubles is now staged before the main tournament starts, in a slot that used to belong to practice sessions and qualifying, and the draw is filled by leading singles players rather than doubles specialists. This season the event runs from August 24 to August 26.

The organisers’ logic is easy to follow. For decades mixed doubles was the discipline the crowd watched out of the corner of its eye, tucked away on the outside courts while the main draw unfolded. By moving it to the week before the tournament and bringing in singles stars, the US Open has carved out three days with no competition in the calendar and with names on court that actually sell tickets. From that angle, Djokovic and Sabalenka are precisely what the format was designed to attract.

The published entry list features 16 teams, with Alexander Zverev and Taylor Fritz also among those who signed up. The field, in other words, is not a handful of players who happened to be free that week. It is a serious cross-section of what currently drives both the men’s and the women’s game.

What this team can realistically do in three days

A compressed format is the biggest enemy of any favourite. When the whole event is decided inside three days, there is no room to settle into a rhythm across a round or two, no way back from a poor start, and no long tie-break in which experience gradually wears an opponent down. Last year’s first-round exit is the clearest reminder of just how little margin this format leaves.

What Sabalenka brings, on the other hand, is something Djokovic has not had beside him in this discipline before: a shot that ends the point on its own. Her serve and forehand are worth double in doubles, because they shorten the rally before the opposing team has even set its position. Pair that with his court sense and return game, and the team has a genuine tool for three days of pressure.

The open question is chemistry, and chemistry in doubles is not solved by reputation. Who covers the middle, who moves in behind the serve, how balls down the centre of the court get divided, these are details teams work out over months, and the two of them will have a handful of practice sessions. The first real test arrives on August 24.

Do you find this format with singles stars more compelling than a classic mixed doubles draw filled with specialists?