US Open Mixed 2026
Mixed doubles took an exciting center stage in the preliminary week of the US Open. Mixed is the most interesting game of doubles because the relative strengths and weaknesses of the players are potentially magnified by their gender. In this year’s final, Jakub Mensik and Karolina Muchova defeated Flavio Cobolli and Belinda Bencic 6-3, 1-6, 1-0(6). An interesting question is whether or not there are any lessons to be learned by the return of serve choices of the players. In club mixed, there is often an unwritten rule that the man should not hit with maximum force against the opposing female. There is no such prohibition when pros play.
The following table displays the results (percentage of points won) of return of serve choices against each of the opposing servers. To keep it simple, we differentiate only between down-the line (DTL) returns which are directed at the net player and the more standard return of serve directed cross court (Xcourt) back to the server. For example, when Mensik returned DTL to Bencic on Cobolli’s serve, he won 57.1% of the points.
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Match: |
Receiver |
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|
Mensik |
DTL |
Xcourt |
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|
Server |
Cobolli |
28.57% |
57.1% |
0.0% |
|
Bencic |
35.71% |
50.0% |
33.3% |
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|
Cobolli |
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Mensik |
42.11% |
75.0% |
33.3% |
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|
Muchova |
27.27% |
0.0% |
37.5% |
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|
Muchova |
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Cobolli |
38.46% |
60.0% |
25.0% |
|
|
Bencic |
35.71% |
0.0% |
41.7% |
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|
Bencic |
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Mensik |
20.00% |
100.0% |
7.7% |
|
|
Muchova |
45.45% |
60.0% |
33.3% |
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Two things emerge immediately from the data: 1) nearly every player is more successful returning DTL as opposed to cross court. (Each player’s higher percentage choice is highlighted in yellow). This is no doubt, in part, because of the pace of the returns; and 2) the two exceptions are when Cobolli is returning cross court to Muchova when she is serving and Muchova is returning cross court to Bencic when she is serving. In both cases, this is an example of getting the ball to the female. We would expect nothing less from pros who are looking to avoid their opponents’ strengths.
Notice also that both men do better when returning the other male’s serve DTL. Again, they are choosing to play the woman. The two outliers are when Cobolli is returning Muchova’s serve (he doesn’t want to play to Mensik) and Muchova is not returning Bencic’s serve DTL (she doesn’t want to hit to Cobolli). Let’s look at the target choices independent of the results for more insight. The numbers in yellow highlight their more frequent choice.
The table below reveals the reason why neither Bencic nor Cobolli chose to play more DTL returns when Mensik was serving. While they were more successful, my guess is that they found his serve too difficult to attack. He did an important job in mixed: protecting the female at the net.
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Match: |
Receiver |
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Mensik |
Attempts |
DTL |
Xcourt |
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|
Server |
Cobolli |
14 |
7 |
7 |
|
Bencic |
14 |
2 |
12 |
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|
Cobolli |
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Mensik |
19 |
4 |
15 |
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|
Muchova |
11 |
3 |
8 |
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|
Muchova |
||||
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Cobolli |
13 |
5 |
8 |
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Bencic |
14 |
2 |
12 |
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|
Bencic |
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Mensik |
15 |
2 |
13 |
|
|
Muchova |
11 |
5 |
6 |
The low number of DTL returns against Mensik are highlighted in green.
Conclusion: the pros demonstrated a well-known fact in mixed: play to the female more often. However, this play is contingent on their feeling that it’s ok to smash the ball at a woman. In local league play, this could perhaps be more easily implemented by playing to the female when both opponents are at the net.
