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08/25 17:43 CDT Quite a couple: Spouses Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils reach US Open mixed doubles semifinals Quite a couple: Spouses Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils reach US Open mixed doubles semifinals By BRIAN MAHONEY AP Sports Writer NEW YORK (AP) --- 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). Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz won their first-round match but were then ousted after a 5-4 (4), 4-1 loss to Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli. Svitolina and Monfils will face Bencic and Cobolli in one semifinal Wednesday, with Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev to meet Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik in the other. The winning team will earn $1 million. That would be quite a payday for Monfils to share with his wife in his final Grand Slam tournament before retiring. "Happy wife, happy life," Monfils said in their postmatch interview after a kiss and hug on the court. Williams and Alcaraz beat Erin Routliffe and Lloyd Glasspool 5-3, 4-1 in Williams' first match at the U.S. Open since 2022. "It's always such an amazing place to be here," Williams said. "I never expected to be back on this court, so it was just a really cool moment. I never thought this would happen." But the 44-year-old Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, and the two-time U.S. Open champion Alcaraz appeared to run out of steam after dropping the first-set tiebreaker after quickly returning to the court for their second match.

New champions will be crowned and an old crush is revealed Williams and Alcaraz began their opening match just as the two-time defending champions were eliminated. Andreeva and Rublev saved a match point and outlasted Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori 1-4, 4-1 (11-9). The 19-year-old Andreeva revealed afterward that she used to have a crush on her partner and fellow Russian, who is 28. They then recovered after blowing four match points in the second set to beat Diana Shnaider and Casper Ruud 4-1, 4-5 (9) (10-5). 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. 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 given wild cards to compete in mixed. They were married in 2021 and daughter Ska 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 a few games."

Czech duo has the look Muchova and Mensik reached the semifinals with a 4-1, 5-3 victory over American pair Emma Navarro and Tommy Paul. Mensik texted Muchova on the eve of the tournament so they could coordinate outfits, and both wore pink tops and maroon bottoms. "It's definitely one of the most important things, to look good on the court, as well," Mensik said. 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. 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 will resemble a regular match, with traditional sets to six games. "I will say if we play until basically regular rules, until six games, will be much more difficult," Mensik said. 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. 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, composed 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. ___ See AP's full tennis coverage here

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