BREAKING: Iga Swiatek pulls out of draw at last minute as US Open forced to scramble
Iga Swiatek has withdrawn from the US Open mixed doubles event at the 11th hour, citing a need to rest ahead of the singles competition. Last year, the Polish star joined forces with Casper Ruud and reached the finals of the inaugural revamped mixed doubles tournament, which uses fast-four scoring until the final, limits just 16 teams to enter, and is now staged across two days in ‘Fan Week’, the week that singles qualifying takes place.
But the world No. 8 decided to pull out shortly before the mixed doubles draw was made on Sunday evening. Swiatek recently lifted the trophy at the Canadian Open and then reached the semi-finals of the Cincinnati Open, losing to Jessica Pegula, and she now needs some time to recharge.
Looking back at a physically demanding few weeks on court and after speaking to my team, I’ve decided it’s best for me to pass on mixed doubles at the US Open this year. Right now, I need a few days to rest, recharge and fully focus on preparing for the singles tournament,” Swiatek wrote in a statement.
“As always, I was really looking forward to playing alongside @casperruud – so Casper, till next time. Thank you all for your continuous support. See you on court soon in NYC.
It left Ruud without a partner, and US Open mixed doubles organiers had to scramble to flesh out the rest of the draw. Diana Shnaider, who was set to link up with Daniil Medvedev, had also been left with no teammate when Medvedev decided to pull out in favour of entering the ATP 250 event in Winston-Salem.
The final mixed doubles entry list before Swiatek’s withdrawal had listed Swiatek and Ruud as one team, and Shnaider with a partner TBC as a separate team. But Shnaider and Ruud decided to partner up together.
The main draw comprises six direct acceptances based on best combined singles ranking, eight wildcards and two qualifiers. The teams of Swiatek-Ruud and Shnaider-Medvedev were ranked high enough to get direct acceptance. But when top-10ers Swiatek and Medvedev dropped out, and Shnaider-Ruud re-paired together, their new combined ranking was too low to get in directly.
The US Open had to do some reshuffling. Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik, and Alex Eala and Felix Auger-Aliassime got into the main draw to replace Swiatek-Ruud and Shnaider-Medvedev as the next alternates. Those two teams had originally been given wildcards, so it left two WCs to spare.
Tournament organisers made sure to give one to the new duo of Shnaider-Ruud. Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev, who would have been the next-highest-ranked team, got the other spare wildcard.
Shnaider and Ruud will begin their campaign against Jessica Pegula and Taylor Fritz, who also had to do some last-minute swapping. Pegula originally entered with Jack Draper after their semi-final run last year, while Fritz was set to join forces with Elena Rybakina.
But Draper was expected to go through singles qualifying this week before he ultimately decided to skip the US Open altogether. Rybakina withdrew from mixed doubles after injuring herself mid-match in Cincinnati last week, so Pegula and Fritz re-paired together.
