Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka, the top seeds in the mixed doubles at the 2026 US Open, were eliminated in the first round on Tuesday. They lost to Henry Patten and Katerina Siniakova with a scoreline of 1-4, 4-2, 10-2 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City [1, 2, 3].
Djokovic, a 24-time Grand Slam singles champion, and Sabalenka, a four-time major winner and the two-time defending US Open women's singles champion, entered the mixed doubles event as favorites [1, 2, 3]. Their opponents, however, proved formidable. Patten, ranked No. 1 in men's doubles, and Siniakova, the No. 1 ranked women’s doubles specialist, fought back to win the second set and dominated the match tiebreak to claim victory and advance to the quarter-finals [1, 2, 3, 3].
The final point came when Siniakova served an ace against Djokovic on match point. Patten called it "pretty fun," saying, "Kat acing Novak on match point was great" and added, "It wasn't looking very good for a while, in this format we play one bad game and all of a sudden the first set's gone." He praised their tiebreak performance, saying they "played an amazing tiebreak" [1, 3].
The US Open mixed doubles event was revamped last year to take place before the singles main draw with a smaller field and a faster format, aiming to attract top singles players like Djokovic and Sabalenka [1, 2, 3]. The winning team in mixed doubles will receive a $1 million prize [3].
The defending mixed doubles champions are the Italian duo Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, who won last year’s final against Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud [1, 2]. Other first-round mixed doubles results on the same day include Elina Svitolina and Gaël Monfils defeating Eala/Auger-Aliassime, Karolína Muchová and Tomáš Mensik beating Mladenovic/Arévalo, and Caroline Navarro and Tommy Paul overcoming Anisimova/Tien [3].
