Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik won the U.S. Open mixed doubles title on Wednesday night in Arthur Ashe Stadium, beating Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli 6-3, 1-6, 10-6 in the final.
After last year’s debut of the new format was dominated by doubles specialists Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, singles players ruled the 2026 installment. No traditional doubles players even reached the semifinals this time around.
Speaking of the semis, Muchova and Mensik were one point away from bowing out of the tournament when they faced Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev. Andreeva and Rublev held double-match point at 9-7 in the super-tiebreaker (including one on Rublev’s serve), but the Czech duo reeled off four points in a row to prevail 5-4(6), 3-5, 11-9.
Another clutch ‘breaker against Bencic and Cobolli gave Muchova and Mensik the trophy.
“I think in the end, the matching outfits made the difference for us,” Muchova joked during the trophy ceremony. “I wasn’t really expecting to be standing here tonight. We came out just having fun and enjoyed this mixed doubles [event] and now we are standing here.”
“It’s my first time standing here,” Mensik added. “I didn’t expect this before the tournament, but it’s such great fun. It was amazing to play and start the U.S. Open like that.”
Singles begins on Sunday. The draw ceremony is set for Thursday afternoon.
nice one, Czechs
Great to see Karo back from her injury and operation!😀
Fun tv viewing….though my favorite tream was Andreeva & Rublev!