The first champions of the US Open, the final Grand Slam tournament of the year, have been determined in New York. Czech tennis players Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik celebrated victory in the mixed doubles and added $500,000 to their bank accounts. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

In the final match, played under classic tennis rules, Muchova and Mensik defeated the Swiss-Italian duo Belinda Bencic/Flavio Cobolli – 6:3, 1:6, 10:6.

The mixed doubles tournament was held in a new format at the US Open for the second time. Besides a solid prize fund, it is interesting for the participation of top singles players, whom organizers pair up, and a special scoring system. Until the final match, each set is played not to six, but to four winning points. At 40:40, a deciding point is played. Instead of a third set, a super tiebreak is held.

Initially, the tournament was conceived as a show of the strongest singles players in mixed doubles, with winners receiving no less than one million dollars. Doubles specialists, who never dreamed of such a prize, protested loudly. The organizing committee made a Solomon-like decision: they allowed doubles players to join the singles players.

As a result, last year's inaugural tournament was won by doubles specialists Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori. They also participated in this year's tournament. In the first round, the Italians sensationally lost to the Russian pair Mirra Andreeva/Andrey Rublev – 4:1, 1:4, 9:11.

The Russians eventually reached the semifinals, where they lost to the future champions – 4:5 (6:8), 5:3, 9:11. During the tournament, pairs with the highest marketing appeal – Aryna Sabalenka/Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams/Carlos Alcaraz – were eliminated. The same fate befell the duo Jessica Pegula/Taylor Fritz, where the partner replaced the injured Elena Rybakina at the last moment.

It is worth noting that Elena's participation in the singles draw of the US Open 2026, after suffering an Achilles injury in Cincinnati, is still in question.

However, even without playing a single match at the American major, Rybakina could become the world No. 1 for the first time in history. For this, the US Open 2026 must not be won by Sabalenka, Pegula, or Coco Gauff.

The US Open is an annual Grand Slam tennis tournament on hard courts. It is the last of the four majors in the calendar year.

For the second consecutive year, the US Open, first held in August 1881, starts a week earlier due to the added mixed doubles tournament. The total prize fund of $108 million is a record for majors.

Since 1978, matches have been held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, New York.

The reigning champions are Spaniard Alcaraz and Belarusian Sabalenka.