Emma Raducanu is gearing up for the US Open’s new mixed doubles event, kicking off next Tuesday. After bowing out of the WTA 1000 in Cincinnati with a close defeat to world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, the Brit will head to Flushing Meadows, where she is set to team up with Carlos Alcaraz in the revamped, two-day mixed tournament ahead of the singles competition.

Their blockbuster partnership has been the talk of the tennis world since it was announced two months ago. But Taylor Fritz, who will team up with Elena Rybakina, has warned the rest of the field that they are the favourites to lift the trophy, even though Raducanu and Alcaraz are former singles champions at the US Open.

ATP No. 4 Fritz and 2022 Wimbledon champion Rybakina teamed up to win a mixed doubles exhibition event in Indian Wells earlier this year, and the American believes they will be unstoppable again in New York next week.

“I really do think we’re one of the favourites,” Fritz told Tennis Channel after his third-round win in Cincinnati.

“We have a mixed doubles title already, and I thought we played great there. I’d love to play mixed doubles regularly if it didn’t overlap with singles, but being able to play it before the week starts is amazing. I’m super excited.”

Although Fritz doesn’t play mixed doubles as much as he’d like to, he still considers himself a “specialist,” which is bad news for lesser-experienced doubles players like Raducanu.

Speaking at Wimbledon earlier this summer, he said: “I think I'm a bit of a mixed doubles specialist, I'm not going to lie. I think my record in mixed doubles kind of speaks for itself.

“In United Cup, I don’t think I ever lost a mixed match. I've won the Indian Wells [mixed doubles exhibition] twice. I think that for whatever reason, I enjoy playing mixed doubles. It's good for me.”

Before this year, Raducanu had played and lost one doubles match, partnering Clara Tauson at the 2022 Washington Open.

But the Brit has been trying to get some extra reps in on the match court. She linked up with Katie Boulter at Queen’s, where they won one match before losing in the quarter-final.

And Raducanu will at least get an insight into Rybakina’s doubles tactics with Fritz, as they joined forces in Washington last month and made it all the way to the semi-final.

Dubbed ‘Rybacanu’, the two Grand Slam champions upset the No. 4 seeds, Olivia Nicholls and Tereza Mihalikova, in round one. Their campaign came to an end against the eventual champions, Taylor Townsend and Zhang Shuai, when they retired while 1-4 down, with Raducanu citing a headache.

The world No. 39 will now hope to use that experience when she teams up with Alcaraz next week. The first and second-round matches will be played on Tuesday, August 19, with the semi-finals and finals taking place the following day.

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