US Open director makes announcement about 2025 tournament as she confirms significant change is being made

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The US Open is continuing to make changes and innovations for the 2025 tournament that have never been seen before.

Last year saw two new singles champions, as Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka won the US Open for the first time in their respective careers.

While an American did not win the title, the US Open crowd did get to see a home finalist in both of these events.

Taylor Fritz reached his first Grand Slam final at the US Open last year, alongside Jessica Pegula doing the same in the women’s singles draw.

There were also American runners-up in the mixed doubles event, as Taylor Townsend and Donald Young were beaten by the Italian duo of Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori.

With the US Open tournament looking to get bigger each year, tournament director Stacey Allaster has now confirmed that a significant change will be made to the mixed doubles tournament.

Stacey Allaster confirms change to mixed doubles event for 2025 US Open

There had been a lot of rumours and speculation about a major change to the mixed doubles event, with fans already criticizing the US Open for this.

Now when speaking on the Served with Andy Roddick podcast, US Open tournament director Allaster has confirmed that mixed doubles will now take place in the same week as singles qualifying.

She also revealed that the draw would be decreasing from 32 to 16 teams, and that the scoring system would be altered for the first three rounds before going back to normal for the final.

With sets being played to four in the first three rounds, the mixed doubles event will now take place over just two days (August 19-20).

The prize money for the US Open mixed doubles event will see a significant increase in 2025, rising from $200,000 to $1,000,000 for the winning pair.

“We are announcing that the US Open mixed doubles championship will move from the third week of the US Open to the first week of the US Open, which we call fan week,” Allaster said explaining the reasoning behind the decision.

“Alongside us taking this important championship being overshadowed by the finals of the singles competition and men’s and women’s doubles, and putting it in the first week we are giving top singles players the opportunity to compete for the championship.

“In addition to not only moving the championships, we are changing the draw size from 32 teams to 16 teams. Eight of which will be direct entry and eight wildcards, so that we can have the flexibility with the summer grind for athletes to see how they do in Canada and Cincinnati and see if they want to play.

“In addition we are changing the scoring format for the first three rounds to make it a little tighter, like an hour match, with short sets up to four. The final will be played with regular sets and lastly a $1 million purse for the winning team.

“We want to elevate this important mixed doubles championship. Our CEO (Lew Sherr) is a real champion of equality, he has been talking about this for two or three years but it really came in focus in 2022 as we were celebrating 50 years of equal quality.

“How do we continue as a sport to be a beacon for equality? We are the only professional sport which has the opportunity for the top players to play on the same stage competing for equal prize money and we know that when we see the top players playing mixed the fans are excited.”

It is not just fans that have been frustrated by this decision, with nine-time major winner Kristina Mladenovic also criticizing the US Open.

How else have the US Open made changes for 2025?

This is not the only big change that the US Open have announced ahead of the 2025 tournament.

Following both Roland Garros and the Australian Open, the US Open will now take place over 15 days for the first time in 2025.

While it did not provoke as strong a reaction as the mixed doubles change, the US Open did split opinion by doing this.

With three of the four majors now being extended, it did bring up the question over whether Wimbledon would follow suit.

However, former Wimbledon semi-finalist and member of the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) Tim Henman has played this down.

The singles main draw for the 2025 US Open will get underway on Sunday August 24, when the mixed doubles event will already have concluded.