Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik Claim First Grand Slam Title
Karolina Muchova stood on the baseline, Jakub Mensik at her side, both of them grinning in disbelief. A first Grand Slam title each, a $1m winner’s cheque between them, and a mixed doubles crown that almost slipped away twice before finally landing in their hands.
It ended with a cannon blast. Mensik, just 20 and playing mixed doubles for the first time in his life, uncorked a 131mph ace on their third championship point to close out a 6-3 1-6 10-6 win over Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli in the US Open final. One swing, one blur of yellow, and the night session crowd had its exclamation mark.
From surgery to a Slam
For Muchova, this title lands just weeks after one of the more painful days of her career. She lost the Wimbledon final to compatriot Linda Noskova a little over six weeks ago, then disappeared from the tour to undergo what she described as a “small surgery.” At 30, with her body already having asked tough questions of her career, few would have picked her to be lifting the next major trophy she contested.
Yet here she was in New York, reinvented in a format that barely gives players time to breathe, let alone settle. The reworked mixed doubles is squeezed into less than 48 hours, with 10-point tie-breaks deciding both semi-finals and the final. Blink, and a Grand Slam is gone.
Muchova and Mensik refused to blink.
A rookie serve, a veteran’s nerve
Mensik arrived in this draw as a French Open semi-finalist in singles, but a complete novice in mixed doubles. He had never played the discipline before. It didn’t matter. His serve became the anchor of their run, bailing them out when the format’s roulette wheel spun against them.
They had already walked the tightrope in the semi-finals, saving match points against Andrey Rublev and French Open champion Mirra Andreeva before edging through 5-4 (8-6) 3-5 11-9. Under this compressed format, one bad return game can undo an evening’s work. One nerveless ace can save it. Mensik kept finding those aces.
Off the court, the partnership clicked with the same easy rhythm. They agreed to wear matching maroon outfits, once Muchova had first explained to her younger partner what “maroon” actually was. On the court, they experimented, they problem-solved, they pushed the limits of a brand-new team.
“It’s not probably the main fact that we won the title, but that we had really great matches to play,” Mensik said afterwards. “It’s good we tried a lot of things on the court. It gives you a little bit of boost of confidence.”
Tie-break tension and a door closing
The drama was shared around. Both semi-finals were decided in 10-point tie-breaks, the new heartbeat of this event.
On one side of the draw, Bencic and Cobolli held off Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils 10-5 in their deciding breaker, ending a charming subplot with a hard edge. Svitolina and Monfils were chasing history, hoping to become the first married couple since 1939 to win a Grand Slam mixed doubles title. They will not get another shot. Monfils is retiring at the end of the season, and with it goes one of tennis’s most charismatic careers – and this particular dream.
On the other side, Muchova and Mensik were locked in that knife-edge finish with Rublev and Andreeva. They survived, 11-9 in the match tie-break, and walked off with the sense that something was starting to build. By the time they reached the final, they had already stared down elimination and come through it.
The final itself swung wildly. Muchova and Mensik took the opening set 6-3, only to be swept aside 1-6 in the second as Bencic and Cobolli surged. The tie-break became a test of nerve and first strikes. The Czech pair passed it, with Mensik’s 131mph ace drawing the line under a frantic 36 hours.
A sideshow no longer
This is not the old mixed doubles. The event has been ripped from its quiet afternoon slot and thrust under the lights, reimagined as part of an expanded US Open “Fan Week” designed to pull in global audiences long before the singles main draw begins on Sunday.
Once upon a time, mixed doubles was the preserve of grounds pass holders and diehards, a gentle sideshow to the main event. Not anymore. The semi-finals and final were staged in the night session, in front of bigger television audiences and louder crowds. The United States Tennis Association has backed the change with money as well as scheduling: the mixed doubles prize fund is now five times what it was under the old format.
Specialist doubles players still face a squeeze. Even with a new qualifying competition, spots are limited in a draw built around singles stars. Yet those who do break through now play for serious rewards, and the men’s and women’s doubles prize money has also been lifted to match the mixed event.
The irony is clear. Singles players enjoy the hit-out, the early feel of the show courts, the chance to loosen the arm before the real grind starts. But this will never be their priority. Iga Swiatek, Frances Tiafoe and Daniil Medvedev all pulled out shortly before the event began – Swiatek and Tiafoe to rest after strong runs on tour, Medvedev to chase more singles matches before the Open.
The calculation is simple: protect the main campaign. Unless, of course, the names become too big to ignore.
If the USTA can regularly tempt pairings of the calibre of Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz, or Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic, they will call this experiment a resounding success. For now, they have a compelling product and a final that delivered edge, storylines and a new champion pairing that might just become box office.
A nine-day overture
Mixed doubles is only one piece of a sprawling pre-tournament show. Roger Federer has already stepped back into the spotlight in an exhibition alongside Andre Agassi, John McEnroe and Andy Roddick. Amanda Anisimova and Alexandra Eala joined a cast for the “Stars of the Open” on Thursday night. The Lumineers launched the whole fortnight with a concert inside Louis Armstrong Stadium last Friday.
Nine days of build-up before a ball is struck in the main draw. Nine days in which Muchova and Mensik have turned a short-format curiosity into the stage for the biggest title of their careers.
The singles circus will roll in on Sunday, with all eight mixed doubles semi-finalists – Muchova, Mensik, Bencic, Cobolli, Svitolina, Monfils, Rublev and Andreeva – returning in very different roles. The question now is whether this frenetic, high-stakes version of mixed doubles has planted something more permanent in New York.
On the evidence of one thunderous 131mph ace under the lights, it has.
