NEW YORK – Three weeks after his Wimbledon campaign ended in a straight-sets semifinal loss to Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic found a way to make the U.S. Open story partly his again. He accepted a partnership.
On Monday, the United States Tennis Association announced the initial entry list for the second edition of its revamped mixed doubles championship, and the pairing that tops it belongs to two of the sport’s most decorated names. Djokovic, 39 and carrying 24 Grand Slam titles, will partner with Aryna Sabalenka, the world No. 1 and two-time defending U.S. Open women’s champion, in a team that leads all 16 entered pairs in combined singles rankings. The announcement, confirmed by NBC Sports, establishes a collaboration that, a year ago, would have read as scheduling logistics. In late July 2026, it reads as the sport reconsidering where its center of gravity actually sits.
The U.S. Open context is what gives this entry its weight. Sabalenka arrives as the face of the women’s draw, the player with the most to defend at a venue that has belonged to her for two consecutive September championships. A third straight title would make her the first woman to accomplish it since Serena Williams. Djokovic arrives without the expectation of winning a 25th Grand Slam – but evidently not without the expectation of winning something. Their partnership tests a premise the USTA has been betting on since it redesigned the mixed doubles format last year: that the sport’s biggest names, given the right structure and the right prize, would actually want to play it.
The main draw runs August 25 and 26 at Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong Stadium, five days before the singles event begins August 30. The format is built for decisive moments: best-of-three sets, four games per set, a tiebreaker at 4-all through the semifinals, a 10-point match tiebreaker to decide the final. The winners split $1 million. Last year’s inaugural edition drew nearly 78,000 spectators across the semifinals and finals at Ashe, a crowd that settled the question of whether this format had an audience before its second year had even begun.
Sabalenka’s reasons for entering are straightforward. The U.S. Open hard courts have suited her game – the heavy baseline strikes, the relentless second-serve aggression, the refusal to construct points when she can simply end them – more than any other surface in her career. Her Wimbledon quarterfinal exit this summer, when Naomi Osaka ended a 21-match Grand Slam tiebreak streak that had survived three years of elite competition, landed as one of the summer’s more striking reversals. The grass didn’t work. Flushing is where Sabalenka tends to settle accounts.
Djokovic’s reasons are less obvious, and therefore more interesting.
He was beaten cleanly in the Wimbledon semifinals by Sinner, who conceded zero service games across three straight sets in a result that extended Djokovic’s run without a Grand Slam singles title back to the 2023 U.S. Open – the very tournament Sabalenka has since won in consecutive years. Djokovic said afterward that he intended to return to Wimbledon at least once more. He did not say in what capacity. The mixed doubles entry now answers one version of that question. Whether he is also entered in the men’s singles draw at Flushing, and whether a two-day mixed doubles run ahead of a singles campaign constitutes preparation or something separate, has not been confirmed. The entry deadline for teams is August 17.
The 14 other teams in the field are not decorative. Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud return as runners-up from last year’s inaugural competition, a pairing built around two of the most technically precise baseliners in the current game. Elena Rybakina and Taylor Fritz represent one of the more complementary combinations on the entry list – two flat, heavy ball-strikers who cover opposite sides of the court without overlap. Naomi Osaka partners with Kei Nishikori, a pairing that carries as much narrative weight as competitive expectation. Mirra Andreeva plays alongside Andrey Rublev. Daniil Medvedev teams with Diana Shnaider, who earlier this summer ended Sabalenka’s French Open campaign in a match Sabalenka later described as the low point of her season.
Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, the Italian pair who won the championship in each of its first two editions in 2024 and 2025, are expected to receive a USTA wild card to return. They would enter as the only players in the field with a previous title in this competition. Eight wild cards are distributed by the USTA, with two additional spots decided through a qualifying tournament on August 24.
The notable absences give the field its shape as clearly as the entries do. Sinner retained the Wimbledon title in July and arrives at Flushing as the clear favorite in the men’s singles draw, having not entered the mixed doubles. Carlos Alcaraz, managing a wrist injury that has defined his summer, is also out. Djokovic is the most prominent active men’s Grand Slam champion in the 16-team field. The arithmetic of that fact is easy enough to follow.
USTA chief executive Craig Tiley said the event is designed to show what tennis can be when its biggest players compete on the same side of the net. “Any time you can bring men and women together on the same team,” Tiley said, “you showcase tennis at its best.” The full entry details, confirmed by Bleacher Report, show Djokovic and Sabalenka leading the 16-team field on combined ranking points, ahead of Swiatek-Ruud and Rybakina-Fritz.
What the entry list does not settle is how seriously either player intends to approach a competition that carries no Grand Slam singles points. Whether Djokovic and Sabalenka have trained together, agreed on a strategy, or simply accepted the partnership because the timing aligned – none of that has been disclosed. The $1 million prize and the Arthur Ashe crowd may be reason enough for two players who have spent careers competing for larger things on the same court.
The last time Djokovic won in New York, Sabalenka had not yet become champion of anything there. They enter August 2026 as a team, ranked first in a field of 16, in a competition the USTA built on the assumption that the sport’s biggest names would show up if given the right invitation. The commitment is confirmed. Whether the partnership becomes something more than an entry on a list is what the next six weeks will decide.
