US Open Mixed Doubles Rules: How the 2025 Format Worked
Under the US Open mixed doubles rules the USTA rolled out last year, every match before the championship trimmed a standard tennis set from six games down to four. Sets used no-ad scoring, so the next point won any game that reached deuce, a tiebreak decided any set that reached four games apiece, and a 10-point match tiebreak replaced a full third set whenever two teams split the first two sets, according to USTA/USOpen.org. The championship match used six-game sets instead.
This breakdown covers how that format worked at the 2025 US Open Mixed Doubles Championship, the 16-team event the USTA redesigned with cash incentives and a new schedule slot to pull singles stars like Carlos Alcaraz, Emma Raducanu, Iga Swiatek and Novak Djokovic into the mixed doubles draw (BBC Sport). No confirmed 2026 rulebook turned up in the research behind this article, so treat what follows as a record of last year's scoring system, not a guarantee for the tournament happening now. The 2025 event ran in the same late-August window this year's US Open occupies, so check the official draw and rules pages at USOpen.org directly before predicting a match or filling out a bracket.
US Open mixed doubles rules and scoring before the final
The USTA, which runs the US Open, structured the early rounds as best-of-three-set matches: the first team to win two sets took the match (USTA/USOpen.org). Instead of the familiar six-game set, each set before the final ran to four games, with no-ad scoring at deuce so the next point decided the game outright, per the same source.
Two different tiebreaks governed those matches, and they're easy to confuse:
- Set tiebreak: triggered when a set reached four games apiece (six apiece in the final). It decides that one set only.
- Match tiebreak: triggered only when teams split the first two sets. Instead of a full third set, teams played a first-to-10 tiebreak, won by whichever side built at least a two-point lead (USTA/USOpen.org).
A realistic early-round score line: Team A takes the first set 4-2, Team B answers with a 5-4 tiebreak set, and Team A closes it out 10-7 in the match tiebreak.
Why did sets end at four games instead of six? The shortened scoring accompanied the tournament's move into a standalone two-day window during what had traditionally been qualifying week, ahead of the main singles draws (USTA/USOpen.org). BBC Sport reported that mixed doubles had previously been staged during finals weekend, where it tended to get overlooked (BBC Sport). The compact format was part of a package built to court singles stars, cash incentives and a schedule slot before the main event included, not a standalone change to how mixed doubles is scored (BBC Sport).
US Open mixed doubles final rules: six-game sets and the match tiebreak
The championship match ran under different terms. It stayed best-of-three sets with no-ad scoring, but each set went to six games instead of four (USTA/USOpen.org).
That shift moved the tiebreak trigger, too. A set tiebreak kicked in at six games apiece in the final rather than four (USTA/USOpen.org). The 10-point match tiebreak still replaced a third set if the final split, so that piece of the rulebook applied at every stage of the tournament, not just the early rounds.
A plausible final score line: one team wins the first set 6-4, loses the second 7-6 after a tiebreak, then needs the 10-point match tiebreak to settle the title.
The supplied 2025 reporting indicated the other three majors, the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon, were considered unlikely to adopt the format any time soon (BBC Sport). Verify each tournament's current rules before assuming that comparison still holds. And don't carry any of this into a weekend club match; recreational and league mixed doubles typically set their own scoring, independent of any Grand Slam rulebook.
Why the USTA overhauled the event, and who pushed back
The field was capped at 16 teams, with eight qualifying by combined singles ranking and eight receiving wildcards from tournament organizers (USTA/USOpen.org). Twenty-one of the 32 players in last year's field were ranked in the ATP or WTA singles top 20, a sign the redesign was built around singles stars rather than career doubles teams (BBC Sport).
Defending champions Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori were the only recognized doubles pairing in the field, and they got in on a wildcard after objecting publicly to the changes (BBC Sport). Prize money jumped sharply: last year's winning team earned $1 million, five times what Errani and Vavassori collected the year before, while singles prize money still made up roughly 75% of the US Open's record $90 million purse (BBC Sport).
Doubles specialists objected on different grounds. Mike Bryan, who won four of his 22 Grand Slam doubles titles in mixed play, argued organizers should have reserved more spots for dedicated doubles players: "I think they should have had a couple more spots for the doubles guys" (BBC Sport). Jamie Murray, a three-time US Open mixed champion, called the event "a glorified exhibition in my eyes" and said the new prize money was "going to players who are making an absolute boatload anyway" (BBC Sport).
Arthur Ashe Stadium ran about two-thirds full for the opening match between Alcaraz and Raducanu, then was just short of a full house for the semifinals and final, per BBC Sport. Errani and Vavassori won the title over Swiatek and Ruud, and Vavassori pushed organizers to build on the moment afterward: "We showed that doubles is a great product and in the future we need more marketing and visibility" (BBC Sport).
What to verify for the 2026 tournament
The four-game, no-ad format governed every 2025 US Open Mixed Doubles Championship match except the final, which used six-game sets while keeping the same no-ad scoring and 10-point match tiebreak. That six-game final is the exception worth remembering if a broadcast graphic ever shortens the whole event to "sets to four."
BBC Sport reported last year that Errani and Vavassori's title run made a case for reserving more spots for doubles specialists "if, as expected, the format returns" this year (BBC Sport). That's the outlet's own framing from the time, not a confirmed USTA announcement, and no updated rulebook for the current tournament appeared in the research for this piece.
The Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon weren't expected to copy the US Open's system as of that reporting, and local clubs or recreational leagues run their own scoring regardless of what happens at Flushing Meadows. Since this year's US Open falls in the same late-August window, pull up the current draw page and rulebook directly at USOpen.org before assuming the four-game, no-ad format repeats exactly, or before applying US Open rules to another Grand Slam or a weekend mixed doubles match.