By ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik advanced to face Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli in the U.S. Open mixed doubles final, edging Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev on Wednesday night, Aug. 26.
The Czech duo erased two match points in the match tiebreaker to win 5-4 (6), 3-5 (11-9).
Muchova and Mensik trailed 9-7 before running off the final four points. They had just a short break before the final, with the winning team receiving $1 million.
The final was the only match of the tournament that resembled a regular match, with standard sets to six games and a tiebreaker at 6-all. Through the first three rounds, sets were to four games, with a tiebreaker at 4-all.
Bencic and Cobolli rallied to end the run of spouses Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils in the first semifinal with a 4-5 (7), 4-1 (10-5) victory.
They appeared headed toward a matchup with Andreeva and Rublev, who were smiling and pumping their fists after opening the lead in the match tiebreaker. Muchova flung her racket to the court in disgust after missing a volley that gave the Russians a 7-5 lead.
But the Wimbledon women’s runner-up never lost belief, thanks in part to her hard-serving partner, a French Open semifinalist who will turn 21 next week.
“One hundred percent confident,” she said.
Mensik served two that Andreeva and Rublev couldn’t get back in the court for a 10-9 lead and the Czechs wrapped it up on the next point.
Bencic and Cobolli knocked Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz out of the tournament Tuesday in the quarterfinals.
Then they dropped a set for the first time in the tournament, but began to dominate midway through the second set, winning the final 11 points to force the match tiebreaker.
“I think we just tried to play more brave maybe,” Bencic said.
It was the second year of the new format in mixed doubles, with the event shortened and moved to the week before the singles main draw begins, with the U.S. Tennis Association hoping that would get top singles players to compete.
Plenty of top names did compete but much of the star power, including Williams and Alcaraz, went out early. Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic lost their opening match, as did Alex Eala and Felix Auger-Aliassime, and Jessica Pegula and Taylor Fritz.
None of the teams featuring doubles specialists survived to the final four, leaving an opening for some players still seeking Grand Slam glory such as Rublev, who has fallen 10 times in major quarterfinals.
Svitolina and Monfils, who have both reached the U.S. Open singles semifinals, accepted a wild card to team up for the first time. Married since 2021, they were trying to win a championship in the final appearance in a Grand Slam tournament for Monfils, who will turn 40 on Sept. 1, before he retires.
They pulled out a back-and-forth tiebreaker in the first set in which they blew a 4-0 lead, then erased two set points. They went ahead 8-7 when Bencic tried to hit a cross-court backhand but nailed Cobolli, who had strayed into the middle. Cobolli then double-faulted to lose the set.
He recovered with consecutive volley winners to break Svitolina’s serve for a 2-1 lead in the second set. The match tiebreaker was tied at 2 but swung the way of Bencic and Cobolli when Svitolina was just wide on three straight shots.
