Watch: Djokovic does 'Pump It Up' dance with kids after sealing 14th Wimbledon semis
It wasn't the first time Djokovic brought the moves to Centre Court. After his fourth-round win over Alex de Minaur, he and daughter Tara had shared the same celebration courtside. The dance, called 'pumpa' in Serbian (meaning 'pump it up'), has since taken on a life of its own—part bonding moment, part lucky charm.Djokovic's win over Cobolli also marked his 102nd Wimbledon match win and 52nd Grand Slam semi-final appearance, tying Chris Evert's all-time Open Era record. But despite the numbers, it's these joyful post-match routines with his kids that have captured the crowd's hearts.Next up, Djokovic faces world No. 1 Jannik Sinner in a blockbuster semi-final. But for now, it's the family vibes and fist-pumping fun that are stealing the spotlight.- Ends
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The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
US Open mixed doubles revamp — glorified exhibition or hard-nosed competition?
Non-conformity is a quintessential US Open trait. From being the first to introduce a final-set tiebreak way back in 1970 to allowing in-game coaching in 2022, the season's last tennis Major has defied tradition multiple times. Tuesday, however, will see arguably the most radical and controversial of transformations, with a new mixed doubles format ready to be showcased. It will feature only 16 teams — eight direct acceptances and eight wild cards — down from 32, and players have been allowed to enter only with their singles ranking. The two-day affair is being played in the week preceding the Slam and will witness reduced sets (to four games, except in the final). The who's who of singles tennis, from Carlos Alcaraz to Jannik Sinner to Iga Swiatek to Naomi Osaka, will compete without having to worry about doubles burning their singles ambitions. Creating a buzz For the United States Tennis Association (USTA), it is about creating a buzz around a format that doesn't exist outside the Slams and quadrennial extravaganzas like the Olympics. It can help schedule matches on the biggest show-courts such as the Arthur Ashe Stadium, sell tickets, beam the action on primetime television and collect more in sponsorships. But the change has left the doubles stars disappointed. 'As a doubles athlete, my heart is bleeding,' said Wimbledon champion Sam Verbeek, and one can see why. Already competing for a fraction of the prize money, doubles specialists have had the door shut on their faces. None among the ATP doubles top-10 is in the draw. Nine of them had taken part in the 2025 Wimbledon mixed doubles competition. The women fare better, with three of the WTA doubles top-10 set to compete. But the current World No. 1 is United States' Taylor Townsend and to not have her would have been a public relations disaster. Thus, the nearly three-fold increase in purse from $802,000 in 2024 to $2,360,000 will mostly be pocketed by the already highly paid singles stars. 'Doubles already plays second fiddle to singles in terms of visibility, scheduling, prize money. This move just reinforces that hierarchy,' former World No. 1 Rohan Bopanna told The Hindu. 'A Grand Slam isn't just about singles. It's about the entire ecosystem. When you start trimming one part, especially something that's been a tradition, it chips away at the completeness of the event.' Unilateral decision-making What has also rankled the players is the USTA's seemingly unilateral decision-making. 'I'm honoured that they asked me to play, but how they went about it wasn't really great,' quipped Jessica Pegula, World No. 4 in singles and a WTA Player Council member, in Cincinnati recently. 'We were like, 'you guys (US Open) just went rogue and changed the format and didn't tell anybody',' the American added. The competition is also running concurrently with an ATP 250 in Winston-Salem (USA) and it is no-brainer as to who will enjoy the most coverage. At a time when seven of nine ATP Masters 1000s — except Monte Carlo and Paris — have ballooned into 10-day snooze-fests, elbowing out smaller tournaments, US Open's move doesn't inspire confidence. Can a global sport further allow the shrinking of its footprint?
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Business Standard
an hour ago
- Business Standard
$1M prize, star players at 2025 US Open mixed doubles; But some are upset
Grand Slam singles champions such as Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Iga Swiatek and Madison Keys will be playing for a little extra money OK, a lot of extra money, by any standard: $1 million to the winning duo and trying to get their hands on a trophy in the U.S. Open's overhauled mixed doubles tournament. The best of the best at doubles, meanwhile, are not so excited about what one of last year's mixed champions in New York, Sara Errani, labeled sad and "nonsense in an interview with The Associated Press. She and Andrea Vavassori, who'll be defending their title, are the only true doubles team competing Tuesday and Wednesday at Flushing Meadows. A year ago, only two highly ranked singles players participated. It would be like if, at the Olympics, they didn't let the actual high jumpers participate, and instead had basketball players compete in the high jump because it's more interesting.' If you want to do that, I guess you can, but you can't award them medals," Errani said. "You can't have a Grand Slam doubles (trophy) and not let doubles players take part. ... You're excluding them from their sport. It's dishonest. Who is playing in the 2025 U.S. Open mixed doubles tournament? The top seeds, based on their combined singles rankings, are Jessica Pegula, the 2024 U.S. Open runner-up, and Jack Draper, a semifinalist a year ago. He's onto his third partner after Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen and former No. 2 Paula Badosa withdrew with injuries. Their initial opponents might be the most-anticipated pairing: five-time Slam champ Alcaraz and 2021 U.S. Open winner Emma Raducanu. Other teams include Sinner and 10-time major doubles champion Katerina Siniakova, Swiatek and Casper Ruud, Keys and Frances Tiafoe, Venus Williams and Reilly Opelka, Taylor Fritz and Elena Rybakina, Naomi Osaka and Gael Monfils, Novak Djokovic and Olga Danilovic, and Daniil Medvedev and Mirra Andreeva. It's going to count as a real Grand Slam. The prize money is great, said Fritz, the runner-up to Sinner in singles at Flushing Meadows a year ago. We are 100% there to try to win it. Said Tiafoe: Seeing the prize money, everyone was like, We're going, no matter what.' What is different about mixed doubles at the U.S. Open? What's different? Put plainly: everything. That includes the top prize of $1 million a year after Errani and Vavassori split $200,000. Even the rules are changing, with sets played to four games instead of six until Wednesday's final, no-Ad scoring, and match tiebreakers instead of a third set. There are 16 teams instead of 32. The matches were shifted from the latter stages of the U.S. Open, overlapping with singles, to before next Sunday's start of the main singles brackets. Half the field is based on singles rankings, and the other half was simply chosen by the U.S. Tennis Association. That's how the singles stars got involved. It's also why some say the whole thing is a bit silly. Gaby Dabrowski, a Canadian who owns two major championships in mixed doubles and earned the women's doubles trophy at the 2023 U.S. Open, tried to get into the field with Felix Auger-Aliassime, but they were not among the USTA's wild-card selections. Do I think it's a true mixed doubles championship? No. Do I think it could help the sport of doubles in the end? It could, Dabrowski said, but not if you can't have any doubles players play in it. Why are some players upset about the U.S. Open mixed doubles changes? Like Errani or Dabrowski, doubles players aren't thrilled about being excluded and losing out on a payday. They also think it's generally demeaning to doubles specialists even if the USTA thinks this can help boost the popularity of doubles. When you get the biggest names playing doubles, it does bring a bit more attention to it, said Joe Salisbury, a British player who's won two Grand Slam titles in mixed doubles and four in men's doubles, but I'm not sure it's good for the doubles event, because it's not really a proper event. It's just a two-day exhibition. Tournament director Stacey Allaster objects to that sort of characterization. Let's be absolutely crystal clear: This is a Grand Slam championship. It is not an exhibition, Allaster said. We're sympathetic to the doubles specialists who don't like this change. ... (But) we know that when fans see top players competing ... this is going to inspire more fans to not only attend but to play tennis, and it's ultimately going to grow the sport. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz are playing, but has US Open reduced mixed doubles to an exhibition?
With prize money of $1 million, a shorter format and a slew of singles tennis stars set to compete, a revamped version of the mixed doubles event at the US Open will begin on Tuesday, resembling something closer to an exhibition than a proper Grand Slam competition. It represents a big punt from US Open executives, who hope to exploit the commercial potential of the event by filling it with big names and having it before the singles main draw of the last Major of the calendar year, which kicks off next week. Traditionally, mixed doubles – an event only played at the Majors – would take place alongside the singles, making it a deterrent for stars hoping to go deep in their individual events. Big names have turned up for the revamped tournament. Men's world No.1 Jannik Sinner will team up with women's doubles World No.2 Katerina Siniakova, while Carlos Alcaraz will be seen alongside Briton's Emma Raducanu, opening their campaign against top seeds Paula Badosa and Jack Draper. Novak Djokovic will team up with compatriot Olga Danilovic. Altogether 16 pairs will vie for the title – and the million-dollar prize money – with seven teams being seeded and the others receiving wild cards. The seeds were drawn on the basis of the combined singles rankings of the two players. The draw is smaller – only four wins required to emerge with the title – and the matches will take place in a reduced best-of-three-sets format. Only four games will be required to win a set; there will be no deuce, instead a single point at 40-40 will win the game; and at one-set a piece, matches will be decided by a 10-point match tie-break as opposed to a full third set. The new event drew interest from the sport's big names but was roundly criticised by the top doubles players for reducing a Major trophy event to a virtual exhibition. After the new tournament was announced in February, last year's mixed doubles champions, the Italian pair of Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, said in a joint statement: 'Making decisions just following the logic of profit is profoundly wrong in some situations… The US Open mixed doubles tournament will be completely turned upside down, cancelled and replaced with a pseudo-exhibition focused only on entertainment and show.' 'We see it as a profound injustice that disrespects an entire category of players. We don't know at the moment if we'll have the chance to defend our title but we hope this remains an isolated case,' they added. Arguments of this being a 'disservice' to the doubles category have been countered simply: the US Open executives believe that the rate at which audiences and viewership are sliding for doubles tennis itself is doing the biggest disservice to the game, and without something new and exciting that sees buy-in from the big stars, it is likely to fade away entirely. While that buy-in has been achieved, the latest headache for the US Open will be whether those whose names feature on the posters, for whom high-value tickets have been bought in New York, will all feature in the competition. They found a small window to hold the standalone event prior to the main draws but the packed tennis schedule makes it difficult for all the top players to play. Sinner and Alcaraz, both set to feature in the late session on Tuesday, will cross swords in a highly-anticipated final at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Cincinnati, just 24 hours prior to their match starts in New York. Iga Swiatek, who is the third seed alongside Norway's Casper Ruud, will be playing the final of the Cincinnati event less than 16 hours before she is expected to play the opening match at the US Open. Her opponent in Monday's final, Jasmine Paolini, has already withdrawn from the mixed doubles event. So too has Emma Navarro – Sinner's original partner – and Jessica Pegula, who was supposed to play alongside Draper. Still, all three players are scheduled to arrive in time in New York, and the US Open remains bullish on the new initiative providing an additional revenue stream. Its success may signal commercial genius on their side, but would raise greater existential questions about the future of doubles specialists, those of whom the executives rejected while scripting this format.
