Only the final will closely resemble a Grand Slam match, a best-of-three sets played to six games with no-ad scoring, tiebreakers at 6-all and a 10-point match tiebreaker.
Sherr said the USTA had discussed a format change in previous years but the idea truly picked up steam after last year, when a “Mixed Madness” event during the qualifying week drew singles superstars such as Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka, Nick Kyrgios and Ben Shelton, and was won by Stefanos Tsitsipas and Paula Badosa.
“We’ve known and we’ve had conversations over the years, like, why don’t they participate and we understand the scheduling challenges,” Sherr said. “I think last year’s task with that mixed madness event really informed our thinking, that if could unlock that week and free up the top singles players to participate, because it didn’t compromise their fitness or their health going into the singles, there was a huge opportunity to attract them and that’s what we saw.”
There was a $500,000 prize for that event, which had just four teams. By doubling the prize money and expanding the field, Sherr believes it will create a competition worthy of a Grand Slam title, rather than keeping it as an exhibition.
“The athletes played hard,” Sherr said. “It was not an exhibition, it was not a hit-and giggle, no kids got brought onto the court. It was a competition and that to me was the test. Would the athletes compete, and the answer to that was yes. Now we have an opportunity for a legitimate world championship, a Grand Slam championship, and we think the stakes only go up by making it the actual event.”
