“You guys just went rogue” – Jessica Pegula bluntly criticizes US Open, alleges poor communication about new mixed doubles format

Jessica Pegula stated that the US Open has failed to provide players a heads-up about the new format at Flushing Meadows this year. Under this, 16 teams will participate, eight based on singles and eight wild cards, while the mixed doubles event will take place during Fan Week over two days.

Pegula has had a decent 2025 season so far. She clinched her first title of the season at the ATX Open and her first clay-court title at the Charleston Open, reached the Miami Open finals, and opened her grass-court season victoriously at the Bad Homburg Open. She defeated Iga Swiatek in the finals.

The 2024 US Open finalist, also a member of the WTA’s Player Council, will be in contention at the 2025 US Open, following her Cincinnati campaign. Ahead of the final North American hardcourt lap, Jessica Pegula expressed frustration about the US Open not communicating the new format before announcing the mixed doubles players. She felt that the tournament should have taken input from participants and said:

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"We were like, Okay, you guys (US Open) just went rogue and changed the format and didn’t tell anybody. You just kind of did it. What do you even know? Did you talk to the players? Did you get their input about how it could be better?

"I think that’s just something that we as players are trying to work with them on, having that line of communication be a lot smoother. I feel like maybe if there was feedback about the format, then the (reaction) would be a little different, not so all over the place," she said, via Tennis.com.

Pegula will partner with Tommy Paul in the mixed doubles. However, as per the rule update, doubles specialists like Katerina Siniakova and Marcelo Arevalo would be allowed as wild cards only.

Jessica Pegula calls out the tight schedule of the tour

The US summer swing has taken a toll on the top players, who withdrew from the Canadian Open due to a hectic schedule. The packed summer calendar had the Canadian Open conclude on Thursday and the Cincinnati tournament begin the same day.

The US Open mixed doubles will begin the day after the Cincinnati event concludes. Jessica Pegula highlighted that the players were surely making more money, but at the cost of their mental health. She said, via the aforementioned source:

“The two weeks, I feel like it’s crushing a lot of the players a little bit. Obviously, yes, (they can) make more money, and our prize money may be a little bit higher and stuff like that—but it’s kind of, like, at what expense?”

Jessica Pegula and Hailey Baptiste partnered up for the women's doubles in Cincinnati, slated to go against Ellen Perez and Lyudmyla Kichenok.

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About the author

Agnijeeta Majumder

Agnijeeta is a US Olympics journalist at Sportskeeda. She holds a Master’s degree in English and has worked as a school teacher, a blogger, a content writer and a sports writer over the past 5 years. A lover of high-adrenaline track and field events, she was also a sprinter during her school days.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone happens to be her favorite Olympian, and the athlete’s feat of breaking four records within 13 months inspires her, apart from the American's body language on and off the track. Grant Hackett swimming with a partially dysfunctional lung and winning gold in Athens is her all-time favorite Olympic moment.

Agnijeeta believes that deriving of unique angles from podcasts and interviews carried out by Olympics.com, along with hype-building of potential Olympic events on social media can help fill the coverage gap during the off season.

When not at her work desk, Agnijeeta likes to sing and paint. She also plays string instruments like guitar and ukulele and is an avid player of word puzzles.

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