Washington [US], August 6 : Four years after singles glory at the Paris Olympics 2020, Belinda Bencic and Alexander Zverev will be joining forces to chase the US Open glory in the mixed doubles competition.
As per the official website of the tournament, it will pair's first outing together. But they have competed against each other in the mixed doubles category during the 2018 Hopman Cup final, where Bencic teamed up with Swiss legend Roger Federer to take on Zverev and Germany's Angelique Kerber in a winning effort.
The US Open mixed doubles tournament will go on with the similar scoring format of best-of-three set matches, played with four games per set, no ad-scoring and a 10-point tiebreak in lieu of a third set. The title clash is set for August 20 and will be a best-of-three, no-ad match with six games per set and a 10-point tie-break in place of a third set.
The cutoff for direct entry in the category was so high that world number 20 Bencic had to use a protected ranking (a special ranking allowing a player sidelined due to an injury/reason to reflect their previous performance) to solidify her place alongside world number three Zverev. The Swiss star had just returned from pregnancy last October and used a protected ranking of number 15 to enter the tournament's mixed doubles event.
Both Bencic (9 tour-level titles) and Zverev (24 tour-level titles) have a solid single resume, but are also two-time tour-level champions, ranked within the top 75 in doubles competition.
Bencic also has an Olympic silver in doubles competition, reaching the final of Tokyo 2020 with fellow Swiss Viktorija Golubic in women's doubles. She also secured both her tour-level doubles crowns in 2015, with Katerina Siniakova in Prague and with Kristina Mladenovic in Washington, D.C.
Zverev joined forces with his brother Mischa Zverev, in Montpellier in 2017 for his maiden tour-level doubles title and later in 2019. He has made it to six additional finals in doubles competition, out of which five appearances have come with Mischa and one with Marcelo Melo at Monte Carlo Masters.
Zverev won his doubles titles with his brother Mischa Zverev, in Montpellier in 2017 and Acapulco in 2019. He has reached six additional finals, five with his brother and the other with Marcelo Melo at the 2024 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.