Quite a couple: Spouses Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils reach US Open mixed doubles semifinals

NEW YORK — Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils have both gone far but never all the way to the U.S. Open title. Maybe the married couple can finally win a trophy together.

The spouses made quite a pair on the court Tuesday, becoming the first team into the mixed doubles semifinals by edging Katerina Siniakova and Henry Patten 5-4 (6), 4-5 (3) (10-8).

In Monfils' final Grand Slam tournament before retiring, he and Svitolina need two wins Wednesday night to earn $1 million.

"Happy wife, happy life," Monfils said in their post-match interview after a kiss and hug on the court after match point.

Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz started their first-round match, Williams' first at the U.S. Open since 2022, just as the two-time defending champions were eliminated. Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev saved a match point and outlasted Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori 1-4, 4-1 (11-9).

The U.S. Open tinkered with the format of the tournament this year to allow more doubles specialists back in, but it was the singles players who had the upper hand throughout much of the day.

Monfils, who will turn 40 on Sept. 1, reached the U.S. Open semifinals in 2016. Svitolina, who is eight years younger, got to the final four in Flushing Meadows in 2019.

Now it's another semifinal — and an unlikely one — after they outlasted a team featuring the No.-1 ranked players in men's and women's doubles.

Monfils, who is from France, was given a wild card into the singles tournament. He and Svitolina, who is from Ukraine, were also given wild cards to compete in mixed. They were married in 2021 and daughter Skaï was born the next year.

Because they were unsure at first they would be in the field in New York, Svitolina said they entered with no expectations, having not even worked on their tactics until Monday.

"I mean, we practice quite a lot together back at home or on the tournaments. Only yesterday we worked on few things for doubles," Svitolina said.

"When we warmed up this morning, yeah, I told my coach it would be amazing if we can win just few games."

Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik also reached the semifinals with a 4-1, 5-3 victory over American pair Emma Navarro and Tommy Paul.

Earlier, Siniakova and Patten ousted Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic 1-4, 4-2 (10-2) in the first round. Siniakova ended the match with an ace while serving to Djokovic.

"Kat acing Novak on match point was pretty fun," Patten said.

The tournament was overhauled last year in an effort to get more top singles players to compete. It was moved to a two-day event well before the singles main draw begins, with a scoring format that guarantees quick matches that shouldn't tax the players too much.

The matches in the first three rounds feature sets to four games, with a tiebreaker at 4-all and a 10-point tiebreaker instead of a third set. Only the final on Wednesday night will resemble a regular match, with traditional sets to six games.

Sabalenka, the two-time defending U.S. Open women's champion, and 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic are exactly the types of players the U.S. Tennis Association was seeking. They had the No. 1 seed based on the lowest combined singles ranking of any team, but their loss was far from an upset.

Patten and Siniakova turned things around after Sabalenka and Djokovic stormed through the first set in 12 minutes, then got an early break in the second.

Doubles specialists such as Siniakova and Patten were shut out of the U.S. Open last year, when teams qualified directly based on the two players' singles rankings, or were given wild cards by the USTA. Errani and Vavassori, who had won the title in 2024, were the only doubles players in the field after they were given a wild card to return, and went on to defend their title.

An eight-team qualifying tournament was added this year, giving two teams, comprised mostly of regular doubles players, the chance to earn their way into the main draw.

Svitolina and Monfils routed Alex Eala and Felix Auger-Aliassime 4-1, 4-1 in their opening match.

Muchova and Mensik edged Kristina Mladenovic and Marcelo Arevalo 4-1, 2-4 (10-7) in their opener. Navarro and Paul ousted fellow Americans Amanda Anisimova and Learner Tien 5-3, 4-2.

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