US Open Mixed Doubles: Swiatek/Ruud and Errani/Vavassori first into semi-finals after frenetic opening ties

Packed stadiums and a first semi-final duo lined up at the 2025 US Open Mixed Doubles as Casper Ruud and Iga Swiatek and Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori are throughi. The first part of the evening complete at Flushing Meadows with Raducanu/Alcaraz v Draper/Pegula the lead attraction.

To start the event, Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori showed why they are the class of the field in regards to doubles as they 'upset' the second seeds albeit it wasn't really an upset when it comes down to it. They faced Elena Rybakina and Taylor Fritz with a point to prove.

Rybakina and Fritz had teamed together before in Tiebreak Tens and so much was their success that they immediately announced their intention to partner up at the changed event which now takes place the week before the Grand Slam and features a much changed criteria. That of singles stars being invited to form dream teams but this did not go down well.

Errani and Vavassori in particular as defending champions did not exactly see the fun element of it or even that they would earn vastly more riches with some seeing it as a mockery and were highly critical. The Italians too criticised the move and were not on the initial Entry List despite being the champions. This soon changed but with Siniakova too who partnered Sinner up until today until he had to withdraw also snubbed with her usual partner, it showed a shift away from the conventional norms.

But while some conventional norms were shattered, some stayed the same as the Italian duo made light work of Fritz and Rybakina to move into the Quarter-Finals. It was Karolina Muchova and Andrey Rublev who became their opponents. They faced the dream team of close friends and led by American icon Venus Williams alongside Reilly Opelka albeit of course with his whopping serve, the thought of that crashing down was very much an intriguing one.

It was Williams return for the first time since 2023 to Flushing Meadows and she showed flashes as she lost 2-4, 5-4(4) to Rublev and Muchova who have previously teamed up in usual post season exhibitions and so are familiar with each other which ultimately on the side of Venus and Opelka didn't help this time around but that is the short format.

Williams fired an ace past Rublev and Opelka played his part in keeping it close after losing the first set pretty comfortably. But the younger duo were able to wrongfoot the American aces on multiple occasions and find gaps in the arsenal of the 45-year-old who managed to produce a valiant effort but lost out.

Then it was the turn of Errani and Vavassori who found their way through narrowly in the second set to see off Muchova and Rublev. The latter lost the first pretty easily 4-1 but found a way to keep it interesting and only narrowly lost it in the second 7-4. The former will return tomorrow.

Ruud and Swiatek into semi-finals

There they will face Ruud and Swiatek who were utterly sublime. Swiatek is used to this format herself either through World Tennis League where she has played in the past alongside mostly Hubert Hurkacz or the same equation for the United Cup and without injury, it likely would've been that deadly Polish duo.

But instead it was Ruud who joked that he wanted to join the winning train and that he did as they took down Madison Keys and Frances Tiafoe 4-1, 4-2 in the opener. They then faced Caty McNally and Lorenzo Musetti.

The American Italian duo which initially featured Musetti with Paolini dazzled against Naomi Osaka who showed what she thought of the tournament of sorts wearing training gear to partner Gael Monfils but the showpiece duo couldn't find a way past the last minute replacements as McNally said herself that she was asked last minute to play and just said 'ummm yes'.

They won 5-3, 4-3 and went on to face Ruud and Swiatek but the nous of the experienced pair told as Swiatek and Ruud eased through 4-1, 4-2. They go into SF1 and SF2 with the others to come shortly.

Match Statistics Ruud C / Swiatek I vs. Musetti L / McNally C