Raducanu and Alcaraz sign up as US Open doubles team

British number one Emma Raducanu and Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz are one of several eye-catching pairings planning to play the new-look US Open mixed doubles event.

Fellow Briton Jack Draper is set to feature alongside Chinese world number four Zheng Qinwen, with a host of big names – including Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner and Naomi Osaka – also on the entry list.

The US Open mixed doubles will be held as a standalone event on 19-20 August before the hard-court Grand Slam begins on 24 August.

Bringing the mixed doubles forward is a bold and revolutionary move by the United States Tennis Association, which said it hoped would attract more high-profile singles players.

The 16 pairings announced by the USTA on Tuesday are not guaranteed to play in the event, although it is an indication the players involved are keen on participating.

Sixteen teams have entered the US Open mixed doubles, which will operate as best-of-three-set matches with sets to four games in the earlier rounds.

The final will be a best-of-three-set match to six games, also featuring no-ad scoring and a 10-point match tie-break in lieu of a third set.

When the entry window closes, the top eight teams with the best combined singles ranking will be directly accepted into the draw.

The remaining eight teams will be determined by wildcards.

The initial entry list features:

The eye-catching entry list was announced by the USTA on Tuesday.

Lew Sherr, the USTA’s chief executive, said the tournament was always “confident” of getting the world’s leading players involved.

“Seeing the teams that have already put their names on the entry list makes us all incredibly excited,” he said.

“It shows that the players are behind what we are trying to do, and we know that the fans will love it.”

The plan received strong criticism from some doubles players when it was announced in February.

Italian pair Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, who won last year’s US Open mixed doubles title, are on the entry list, having initially described the decision as a “profound injustice”.