The All England Club is not looking to change the format of the Wimbledon mixed doubles competition for future editions of the Championships despite the success of the “reimagined” tournament at the US Open.
This year, the United States Tennis Association opted to transform the format of the mixed doubles event in order to attract the top singles players, a move officials believe was incredibly successful and which featured partnerships such as Emma Raducanu paired with Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek alongside Casper Ruud.
The tournament was held before the men’s and women’s singles on a sold-out Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong Stadium, drawing a total of 78,000 fans. It was ultimately won by the previous year’s champions, the doubles specialistsSara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, but numerous stars nonetheless expressed hope that other grand slam tournaments would replicate the event. “I think it would be cool if all the slams did this,” said Jack Draper, who reached the semi-finals with Jessica Pegula.
Raducanu was similarly effusive. “It would be so fun if all the slams got involved and did something similar, even if it was not the exact same format,” she said. “I think it was a huge success. So many fans got involved, so many people watching and tuned in. It got a lot of attention.”
There is currently no appetite at the All England Club for the format of its mixed doubles tournament to change. The current setup is considered a key part of the Wimbledon fortnight and doubles is generally more appreciated at Wimbledon, with each of the competitions attracting greater crowds during the tournament.
However, the success of the mixed event and the US Open’s “fan week” in New York has further illustrated how far Wimbledon has fallen behind the remainder of the grand slam tournaments. In recent years, the Australian Open, French Open and US Open have become three-week events, with each of those grand slam tournaments scheduling a large number of events during the qualifying week.
Wimbledon remains hamstrung by its fragile grass courts and the limited space at the All England Club, with the qualifying event taking place more than three miles away in Roehampton. The organisers have attempted to address this issue with its Wimbledon Park Project, which aims to transform the Wimbledon Park golf course across the road from the club into an extension of the tournament grounds, allowing the Wimbledon organisers to host qualifying tournaments on-site and explore its own version of a pre-tournament week.
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The project, which would take many years to complete, has had to navigate numerous legal complaints. The remaining hurdle is a court process to determine whether there is a statutory trust on the land, which means the land must be used for public recreational purposes.
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