After coasting into the semifinals of the new-look US Open mixed doubles competition on Tuesday, Jack Draper and Jessica Pegula sung the praises of the controversial format – which the British No. 1 now hopes to see at the other Slams.
The US Open this year decided to move the mixed doubles competition to qualifying week, crafting a breezy 16-team, no-ad format to court the biggest stars in the sport.
And while the format has been branded a ‘profound injustice’ by defending champions Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori – the only doubles specialist pairing included in the field – Draper and Pegula quite like what they’ve seen so far.
‘I think it’s great, to be honest. If I wasn’t playing the mixed here, I’d be training,’ Draper said following victories over Emma Raducanu and Carlos Alcaraz and then Mirra Andreeva and Daniil Medvedev a round later.
‘I actually prefer sort of, like Jessica said, playing on a big court in front of people. It sort of gets your eye in quicker. I think it would be cool if all the Slams did this. That’s my opinion.
Pegula, who made the final of the 32-team, 2023 US Open mixed doubles competition with Austin Krajicek, is a fan of the format as well.
Jack Draper and Jessica Pegula proved to be a great pairing on a smooth day of tennis Tuesday
The pair barely knew each other before this week but are now into the semifinals in New York
‘It’s always fun just to be on Ashe and playing in front of a full crowd. It’s been awesome,’ she said. ‘He’s coming back from injury. Taking that into perspective, playing at a high level is really cool. I don’t think you can take that for granted. I’ve loved that aspect of it.
‘Anytime you can get out there and get extra reps and compete and win matches, I mean, that’s why we play. To me, it doesn’t really matter.’
The first to two sets of four games format, which also features a 10-point tiebreak in lieu of a third set, certainly hasn’t been heartily embraced by everyone in the doubles world. Eight of the 16 teams given bids were done so based on their combined singles rankings, while the rest were wild cards – with only one going to a fully doubles specialist pairing in Errani and Vavassori, who have advanced to the semifinals as well.
‘Making decisions just following the logic of profit is profoundly wrong in some situations,’ the Italians previously said in a joint statement.
Even Pegula admitted she ‘maybe would like a little bit of a longer format’ after two quick wins set up a matchup against Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud on Wednesday night.
But at the end of a packed day that saw plenty of big-name casualties, the last-minute pairing of Draper and Pegula was left cracking jokes during their press conference and preparing for a semifinal.
The pair were matched after their original partners (Tommy Paul for Pegula, Zheng Qinwen and later Paula Badosa for Draper) pulled out, with Draper estimating that he and Pegula had maybe said ‘four’ words to each other before this past weekend.
‘Tops, max,’ Pegula added. ‘It’s been like, ‘Hi.”
But they quickly realized they have plenty in common.
Draper and Pegula beat Emma Raducanu and Carlos Alcaraz in their first match
Draper hadn’t played since Wimbledon due to a forearm injury but performed well on Ashe
‘We’re both the same a little bit. I’ve seen you around before,’ Draper continued. ‘She’s always locked in, got her headphones in. I’m the same. We just don’t – I don’t think we like people,’ he smiled.
What ensued between the similarly ‘chilled out’ (Draper’s words) partners was an impressively smooth afternoon, as they avoided any sort of tiebreak in either match, beating Raducanu/Alcaraz 4-2, 4-2 and Andreeva/Medvedev 4-1, 4-1.
Draper’s power at the net and Pegula’s clean hitting proved to be a great blend on Arthur Ashe, and off it, one reporter joked that they were like an ‘old married couple’ after Pegula playfully chided her partner for calling the competition an ‘exhibition.’
‘I felt like we would pair really well together,’ Pegula said. ‘I feel like you’re a way better double player than I thought. I didn’t know how much you played doubles, but he’s like, calling things, and wants to be super aggressive and formations and stuff like that. So that was great, because I feel like, yeah, I wasn’t expecting that.’
Draper is smartly using the tournament to get some tennis under his belt after missing tournaments in Toronto and Cincinnati with a forearm injury.
He hadn’t been seen on the court since he exited Wimbledon’s second round on July 3.
‘That period, the last month or so has been amazing for me to get a lot of physical training in and sort of start again with a lot of things,’ he said.
‘So really, really pumped to play… to have the opportunity to play in mixed doubles – I know it’s a bit of fun and ‘exhibition’, whatever, but I’m enjoying it because I’m actually able to get my eye in a little bit before the tournament starts.’
It was only last weekend that both Draper and Pegula were scrambling for partners.
By the end of Tuesday? Pegula was gushing on the court about the ‘best doubles player’ she’d ever played with, while Draper – through another joke, eventually got to the same praise as well.
‘Everyone was pulling out on me. I was just taking anything at that point,’ he laughed. ‘But I got lucky. I got lucky, for sure.’
