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Former doubles specialist Rennae Stubbs and podcast co-host Caitlin Thompson have questioned the communication skills of mixed-doubles pairing Taylor Fritz and Elena Rybakina. Fritz and Rybakina have been announced as one of several participants in the USTA's star-studded mixed doubles event at this year's US Open in August.
The USTA has decided to showcase mixed doubles with an all-new format. The tournament will be played the week before the main event so that big-name singles players can take part. It will feature a new scoring system: best-of-three-set matches to four games, no-ad scoring, tiebreaks at 4-4, and a 10-point tiebreak instead of a third set.
As a result, tennis's biggest stars will be playing. Pairings already confirmed are Grigor Dimitrov and Aryna Sabalenka, Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu, Ben Shelton and Taylor Townsend, Francis Tiafoe and Madison Keys, among many others. Taylor Fritz will be partnering with 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina.
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Rennae Stubbs hosts the Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast with Racquet founder Caitlin Thompson. The pair discussed the Fritz/Rybakina partnership in their latest episode, Mixed Nuts (From 21:39).
Stubbs began by suggesting that Fritz and Rybakina were known to be less than conversational on-court:
"At the bottom of the list of players who have never said a word to each other is Elena Rabakina and Taylor Fritz. Have they ever had a conversation?"
Caitlin Thompson answered that Fritz and Rybakina have played successfully together at other events, including winning the exhibition mixed doubles at Indian Wells earlier this year:
"Well, the reason that they play together is...didn't they win the Indian Wells exhibition tournament? So they've already had interaction, and let me tell you, they're going to be hard to beat."
Fritz and Rybakina won the Eisenhower Cup in March at Indian Wells. They defeated Daniil Medvedev and Amanda Anisimova, and Ben Shelton and Emma Navarro, before beating Madison Keys and Tommy Paul in the final, 10-4. They pocketed the $200,000 first prize.
Taylor Fritz played mixed doubles with Coco Gauff at the Paris Olympics.
Taylor Fritz played alongside two-time Major champion Coco Gauff at last year's Paris Olympics. They progressed to the quarterfinals, narrowly missing out on a medal when they were beaten by Canada's Gabriela Dabrowski and Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Fritz enjoys the mixed doubles challenge, and after the USTA announced the enhanced tournament at Flushing Meadows this year, he was quick to offer his support to the event. He said, per Town and Country magazine.com
“Mixed doubles is always a great challenge, and I’ve had some amazing experiences with it over the years, from the Olympics to the United Cup, and even the USO Mixed Madness last year. I’m definitely looking forward to the chance to compete for a Grand Slam title in the future.”
The event in August should attract a large audience, given the star names on show. Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, and even Nick Kyrgios will also take part.
