In New York, the first champions of the US Open, the final Grand Slam tournament of the year, have been determined. The Czech tennis pair Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik celebrated victory in the mixed doubles and a $500,000 payday each, reports infohub.kz.

In the final, played under classic tennis rules, Muchova and Mensik defeated the Swiss-Italian duo Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli 6:3, 1:6, 10:6.

The mixed doubles tournament was held in its new format for the second time at the US Open. Besides a hefty prize fund, it features top singles players paired by organizers and a special scoring system. Until the final, each set is played to four games instead of six. At 40-40, a deciding point is played. Instead of a third set, a super tiebreak is used.

Initially, the tournament was conceived as a showcase of top singles players in mixed doubles, with winners receiving a cool million dollars. Doubles specialists, who had never dreamed of such a prize, protested. The organizing committee made a Solomon-like decision: they allowed the best doubles players into the "sandbox" alongside the singles players.

As a result, last year's inaugural tournament was won by doubles specialists Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori. They also competed this year. In the first round, the Italians sensationally lost to Russian singles players Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev 4:1, 1:4, 9:11.

The Russians eventually reached the semifinals, where they lost to the eventual champions 4:5 (6:8), 5:3, 9:11. Along the way, pairs with the highest marketing appeal were eliminated: Aryna Sabalenka/Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams/Carlos Alcaraz. The same fate befell the duo Jessica Pegula/Taylor Fritz, where the partner replaced Elena Rybakina at the last moment.

Incidentally, Elena's participation in the singles draw of the US Open 2026, after suffering an Achilles injury in Cincinnati, remains in question.

However, even without playing a single match at the American major, Rybakina could become world No. 1 for the first time in history. For that to happen, the US Open 2026 must not be won by Sabalenka, Pegula, or Coco Gauff.

The US Open is an annual Grand Slam tennis tournament on hard courts, the last of the four majors in the calendar year.

For the second consecutive year, the US Open, first held in August 1881, starts a week earlier due to the mixed doubles event. The total prize money of $108 million is a record for the majors.

Since 1978, matches have been held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, New York.

The defending champions are Spain's Alcaraz and Belarus's Sabalenko.