Djokovic and Sabalenka Ousted in US Open Mixed Opener
Top seeds Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka lost to Katerina Siniakova and Henry Patten 1-4, 4-2, 10-2, after original opponents Frances Tiafoe and Leylah Fernandez withdrew injured.
Siniakova serves. Match point. Djokovic on the return. The ball goes past him before he can even react. Ace. That, with a smile from the Czech doubles specialist, ended the bid for the greatest player of all time and the world’s top-ranked woman to win the US Open mixed doubles title together, before the singles side of the tournament had even started.
Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka, the top seeds, lost their first round match to Katerina Siniakova and Henry Patten in three sets, 1-4, 4-2, 10-2, the last a deciding super tiebreak. They took the opening set with a break in the fourth game, and it looked like the pair with the most star power in the draw would cruise through. Then came a dip in the second: they dropped their own serve, broke back, but the set still went to their opponents. What followed in the super tiebreak all but settled the match before it really got going. Siniakova and Patten pulled off four mini-breaks, and Djokovic and Sabalenka failed to win a single point on the serve of the pair that knocked them out.
One detail from the early draw reports needs correcting here. Djokovic and Sabalenka were not in the tournament because Frances Tiafoe and Leylah Fernandez had withdrawn, they were the top seeds from the moment the draw came out. Tiafoe and Fernandez had been their original first round opponents, but they pulled out, Tiafoe with a wrist injury, and Siniakova and Patten stepped in, a far tougher doubles pairing than Tiafoe and Fernandez would have been. We covered that withdrawal and the tougher new opponents when the draw first came out, in a piece headlined Tiafoe withdraws, Djokovic and Sabalenka drawn against stronger rivals. What looked like a harder task back then has now officially ended in an early exit.
Patten spoke after the match about the game that could have flipped everything.
For a while there it didn’t look great. In this format you drop one bad game and suddenly the first set is gone. We knew the same thing could happen in the second, and we played a brilliant tiebreak. It was great when Kat served an ace to Novak on match point, Patten said after the match.
The US Open mixed doubles event has, since last year, been played in the week before the main singles draw begins, with fewer pairs and shortened sets, specifically so the singles stars can take part without risking their main tournament. Last year’s champions were Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori.
While Djokovic and Sabalenka were packing their bags, an entirely different story was playing out on another court. Serena Williams, back in tennis, teamed up with Carlos Alcaraz and beat Erin Routliffe and Lloyd Glasspool 5-3, 4-1. Williams hit an ace during the match clocked at 193.1 kilometers per hour, and her partner, the seven-time Grand Slam champion, made no secret that he was playing by her instructions.
I’m playing next to the one and only Serena Williams. I’m trying to do what she’s told me, Alcaraz said.
Williams added that returning to the court in New York still felt unbelievable to her.
It’s always an unbelievable place to be. I never expected to come back on this court, Williams said.
Sources disagree on the exact date of the Djokovic-Sabalenka match: Sportska centrala ties it to August 25, while Australia’s ABC News dates it to August 26, likely a reflection of the time difference between New York and Australia.
Mixed doubles is over for Djokovic and Sabalenka, but the tournament is not. Both have a short break before the singles draw opens on August 30, and it is there, not in doubles, that the real test they came to New York for will be decided.
