The best player all-time in men’s tennis (Novak Djokovic of Serbia) will be teaming up with the best women’s tennis player right now (Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus) in mixed doubles at the 2026 United States Open according to beinsports.com on Tuesday.
Due to strange scheduling, the mixed doubles tournament in the United States Open occurs a week before singles and same gender doubles’s play. There is different scoring too. A team can win the set if they win four games and have won two more games than their opponent. The tiebreak is played if teams are tied at four games each rather than six.
The reason why the U.S. Open organizers have made the scheduling change (which started in 2025) is because they are trying to get more star players involved in mixed doubles. Some of the more interesting doubles teams we saw last year included Carlos Alcaraz of Spain and Emma Raducanu of Great Britain, eventual finalists Casper Ruud of Norway and Iga Swiatek of Poland, Jessica Pegula of the United States and Jack Draper of Great Britain, Taylor Fritz of the United States and Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, Daniil Medvedev and Mirra Andreeva of Russia, Madison Keys and Frances Tiafoe of the United States, Naomi Osaka of Japan and Gael Monfils of France, Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic and Andrey Rublev of Russia, Belinda Bencic of Switzerland and Alexander Zverev of Germany, and Anna Anisimova of the United States and Holger Rune of Denmark.
Still, none of the aforementioned teams got the victory. The eventual winners were doubles specialists–Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori of Italy.
Despite winning 24 majors in singles, Djokovic has only won one doubles match at a major in his career. That came at Wimbledon in 2006. Djokovic teamed up with Daniele Bracciali of Italy in a 7-6, 7-6, 7-6 win over Jurgen Melzer of Austria and Gilles Muller of Luxembourg.
Sabalenka has won two grand slam women’s doubles majors. She teamed up with Elise Mertens of Belgium to win the 2019 United States Open and 2021 Australian Open.
