Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori have reached the final of the mixed doubles at the US Open, the fourth and final Grand Slam event of the season, taking place on the hard courts of Flushing Meadows. The player from Romagna and the player from Piedmont thus become the first Italian couple ever in a mixed doubles final of a Major event. In New York, last night, the two Italians defeated the Americans Tyra Grant and Aleksandar Kovacevic in the semifinals with a score of 6-3 7-5. For the title they will face two other Americans, namely Taylor Townsend and Donald Young, who beat the Indonesian Aldila Sutjadi and the Indian Rohan Bopanna 6-3 6-4.
Before Errani and Vavassori, only three other Italians had gone so far in the mixed events of the various Majors, but always “separated”. In the history of the Slams, in fact, there have been two successes by Nicola Pietrangeli at Roland Garros in 1958, with the British Shirley Bloomer, and by Raffaella Reggi at the US Open in 1986, with the Spaniard Sergio Casal. Furthermore, there was also the final lost, the first ever in the Majors, by Uberto De Morpurgo, with the American Elizabeth Ryan, against the two French legends Suzanne Lenglen and Jean Borotra.
In the singles tournaments, Frances Tiafoe reached the semifinals in the men’s draw and Aryna Sabalenka in the women’s draw. The American, number 20 in the world and seeded, once again reached a place among the top four of the tournament in the Big Apple, as in 2022, beating Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, number 9 in the ATP ranking and ninth seed of the event, forced to retire due to a muscle problem in his left leg, with the score of 6-3 6-7 (5) 6-3 4-1 in favor of Tiafoe.
The semi-final of the lower part of the men’s draw will therefore be all stars and stripes (the last time it happened was in 2005): Tiafoe will challenge Taylor Fritz, winner last night against Alexander Zverev. In the upper part, instead, space will be given to Jannik Sinner, who at 20:30 (2:30 in Italy), in the quarter-finals, will face Daniil Medvedev. Between Draper and De Minaur then the last quarter.
In the women’s field, finally, everything is easy for Sabalenka. The Belarusian, number two in the world and seeded, has eliminated the Chinese Qinwen Zheng by 6-1 6-2. Now she will face the American Emma Navarro, who yesterday defeated the Spanish Paula Badosa. On the other side of the draw, instead, the quarterfinals must be played today: the challenges scheduled are Swiatek-Pegula and Haddad Maia-Muchova.