Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori reaffirm supremacy to win US Open mixed doubles final | US Open Tennis 2025

Across two frantic days in New York, Andrea Vavassori and Sara Errani repeatedly made their intentions clear. As the only doubles specialist team in a tournament that had banished the rest of their kind, they were on a mission to prove their worth by succeeding on the court.

Shortly before midnight on an Arthur Ashe Stadium still filled with raucous spectators, the mission was complete. They triumphed in spectacular fashion at the reimagined US Open mixed doubles championship by closing out the star singles pairing of Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud, the third seeds, 6-3, 5-7 (10-6) in a supreme, intense tussle to defend their title.

Ever since the US Open announced its transformed mixed doubles tournament six months ago, which has been moved forward to the US Open’s qualifying week and rebranded as a shortened format with an entry criteria that overwhelmingly favours singles players, Vavassori and Errani have been two of its biggest critics.

A wildcard pairing due to their victory last year, they entered this tournament determined to back up those criticisms by proving the value of doubles players on the court. As they have marched through the draw, many of their doubles specialist peers have offered their full support. “I think this one is also for the doubles players that couldn’t play this tournament,” said Errani afterwards.

In a draw filled with many of the best tennis players in the world, Errani and Vavassori made a decisive case for the importance of teamwork in this discipline. They demonstrated the value of sharp, decisive netplay, strategy, formations and intelligence by on the court. They were always one step ahead of the opponent and they imposed relentless pressure with their suffocating brilliance at the net.

After blazing through to the final without dropping a set, the title was decided in an incredible match defined by sharp contrasts, the teamwork, tactical nous and shifting formations of the Italian pair against the baseline supremacy of Swiatek and Ruud, who spent the night eviscerating forehands as they tried to pierce the Italian wall at the net. They then launched a spectacular comeback to force a final set match tiebreak before the Italians closed out the match. “You proved that mixed doubles players are smarter tactically than singles players, I guess,” said Swiatek.

While the victors made their points clear, in many ways the US Open organisers also did. This event has generated criticism for a wide variety of reasons, from the way it disposed of the doubles specialists to the changes imposed by the US Open without any input from the players themselves.

This tournament’s aim, however, was to create a bigger stage for a format the organisers deemed obsolete, and the interest it has generated is undeniable. Four days before the start of the US Open, a completely full Arthur Ashe stadium was on hand to witness the climax of an event that had become little more than a footnote in recent years.

The evening began with Swiatek and Ruud ousting the top seeds Jessica Pegula and Jack Draper in the first semi-final. During their warmup, the on-court MC suggested that Ruud could win his first grand slam title by the end of the night and described Draper as a two-time grand slam semi-finalist. They were extremely jarring claims that underlined another significant point of contention: should this event be categorised as a grand slam title or, considering its shortened format and restrictive entry conditions, is it simply an exhibition?

Perhaps neither of these definitions are suitable and this is simply a special event in its own category. While some teams, such as Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu, participated for the good vibes, this second night presented an intense, high quality evening of tennis. It is obvious that the singles players have far greater priorities, and they will not lose sleep over losing a mixed doubles event in their training week before the real tournament begins, but they are also intensely competitive and they each competed on Wednesday with determination and full effort.

At a time when numerous global sports, such as athletics, swimming and even gymnastics, have introduced mixed-gender team events, this event is also a reminder of tennis’s failure to properly take advantage of one of its unique selling points: the fact that the top male and female players share the stage at the biggest tournaments. A distinct feature of mixed doubles, compared to those other mixed-gender events, is that the female players are more than capable of holding their own and making decisive winning plays against their male counterparts. For most of the first semi-final match, for example, Pegula was the best player on the court.

In general, the two days of competition were great fun. This tournament included the unforgettable sight of 45-year-old Venus Williams tussling with Andrey Rublev from the baseline, acing him while trailing match point during Karolina Muchova and Rublev’s win over Williams and Reilly Opelka. A month after returning a 153mph serve at Wimbledon, Taylor Fritz at times struggled with Sara Errani’s 70mph first serves. Most notably, one year on from their triumph over a field of specialists, the best mixed doubles team in the world reaffirmed their supremacy by beating the singles superstars. For their efforts, they earned $1m prize money, a handsome pay rise of $800k in just one year.