{"id":40907,"date":"2026-07-28T16:16:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T14:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=40907"},"modified":"2026-07-28T16:16:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T14:16:41","slug":"sabalenka-djokovic-headline-us-open-mixed-doubles-field","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sabalenka-djokovic-headline-us-open-mixed-doubles-field\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabalenka, Djokovic headline US Open mixed doubles field"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><span style=\"font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">World number one Aryna Sabalenka and 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic headline the initial entry list \u200bfor this year&#8217;s US Open mixed doubles championship, \u200corganisers said on Monday, as the revamped event returns for a second edition.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Six-times Grand Slam winner Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud, \u200bworld number two Elena Rybakina and Taylor Fritz, \u200bNaomi Osaka and Kei Nishikori, Jessica Pegula and \u2060Jack Draper, and defending champions Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori \u200bare among the high-profile pairings entered into the competition.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The mixed \u200bdoubles championship will again be held during the week before the singles main draw, from <span dir=\"ltr\">August <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\">24-26<\/span>, after organisers overhauled the \u200bformat last year to attract more top singles players \u200bby reducing the field and offering a standalone place on the calendar.<\/div>\n<div>The \u200centry \u2060window closes <span dir=\"ltr\">on August 17<\/span>, after which the top six teams by combined singles ranking will qualify directly for the 16-team main draw. Eight teams will receive \u200bwildcards, while the \u200bremaining two \u2060places will be decided through an eight-team qualifying draw introduced this year.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The reimagined format proved \u200ba commercial success on its debut last year, \u200bdrawing \u2060sellout crowds and attracting many of the sport&#8217;s top singles players despite criticism from some doubles specialists who said \u2060it \u200bsidelined established doubles teams. Errani and \u200bVavassori went on to retain the title by defeating Swiatek and Ruud \u200bin the final.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21159,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-40907","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The mixed \u200bdoubles championship will again be held during the week before the singles main draw, from August 24-26.","published_date":"","news_description":"The mixed \u200bdoubles championship will again be held during the week before the singles main draw, from August 24-26.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40909,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40907\/revisions\/40909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=40907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}