Jack Draper US Open ‘exhibition’ comment questioned by mixed doubles partner Jessica Pegula

Ewan West
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Jack Draper and Jessica Pegula playing mixed doubles
Jack Draper and Jessica Pegula in US Open mixed doubles action

Jack Draper and Jessica Pegula shone on the opening day of the revamped mixed doubles tournament at the 2025 US Open.

The British-American team are the No 1 seeds based on their respective singles rankings, and they started their campaign with an impressively decisive 4-2, 4-2 win over Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu.

Draper and Pegula then dismantled the Russian pairing of Mirra Andreeva and Daniil Medvedev 4-1, 4-1 in a quarter-final match lasting only 36 minutes.

The duo are yet to lose serve at the event, and they will take on Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud in the semi-finals.

In an unprecedented change, this year’s US Open mixed doubles event features eight teams based on the combined singles rankings of the two players, as well as eight wildcard pairings.

These entry rules have led to a host of singles stars competing while mostly excluding doubles specialists from the event.

In the first round, quarter-finals and semi-finals, matches are best-of-three sets, but first to four games instead of six (with a tiebreak at 4-4), while a 10-point tiebreak is used instead of a third set. The final will be best-of-three sets to six games with a 10-point tiebreak for the deciding set. There is also no-AD scoring in all matches, meaning 40-40 (deuce) is a deciding point.

The entry criteria and format have led some to describe the event as an exhibition, and Draper referenced this during his and Pegula’s press conference.

Draper: Yeah, it would mean a lot [to win]. Obviously it is like a bit of an exhibition format. It’s nice to play with someone obviously, to get to know…

Pegula: (Looks at reporters while smiling) He shouldn’t be saying that, but that’s okay. It’s okay.

Draper: What? What did I say?

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Pegula: Exhibition. You guys know what I mean. It’s fine.

Draper: No, no, but you’re saying like, ‘Oh, have a bit of fun with it’, and stuff. I don’t know. I like winning. It’s good to win, right?

Pegula: Yeah, but it’s not exhibition. No, I know what you’re saying.

Draper: No, but that’s what I’m hearing a lot, it’s a bit of exhibition, it’s a bit of fun, why am I so locked in? Well, it’s a good opportunity to play and like, do well, get a lot of points in before next week and, yeah. Like, I’m enjoying being locked in. I don’t know why it’s a crime to be locked in.

Pegula: (Laughs). No, it’s fine. No, no, no. I’m just laughing at the exhibition part.

Karolina Muchova, who reached the quarter-finals of the US Open mixed doubles with partner Andrey Rublev, also labelled it an exhibition.

“We played an exhibition, and we heard that months later there was this exhibition, so we thought why not try it again? We had fun in Macau and we had fun today,” said the Czech in an on-court interview.

Draper also addressed whether the other three Grand Slam events could copy the US Open’s new mixed doubles format.

“Yeah, I mean, I think it’s great, to be honest,” said the world No 5.

“If I wasn’t playing the mixed here, I’d be training. I actually prefer sort of, like Jessica said, playing on a big court in front of people.

“It sort of gets your eye in quicker. I think it would be cool if all the slams did this. That’s my opinion. I don’t know about yours.”

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