Taylor Fritz ‘hopeful’ Elena Rybakina will say yes after asking important question
Taylor Fritz and Elena Rybakina walked away with a $200,000 cheque after winning the exhibition Eisenhower Cup, but there could be bigger plans in the pipeline for the two tennis stars.
World No 4 Fritz and 2022 Wimbledon champion Rybakina have indicated they could play in the US Open mixed doubles competition following their recent success.
The Eisenhower Cup is a mixed doubles charity event that takes place in Indian Wells ahead of the joint-ATP-WTA 1000 tournaments in California.
Eight teams took part in the fast-paced single-elimination draw tournament, which is played to the Tie Break Tens format of first to 10 points.
Fritz and Rybakina – both former singles champions at the Indian Wells Open as the American won the men’s tournament in 2022 while Rybakina lifted the women’s trophy the following year – beat Daniil Medvedev and Amanda Anisimova in their first match.
They followed it up with victory over Eisenhower Cup defending champions Emma Navarro and Ben Shelton and then faced American duo Madison Keys and Tommy Paul in the title match and blew them away with a powerful service display, winning 10-4.
“It’s really special. I’m glad I was lucky to play here. Thanks to my partner of course and everyone who came to watch. It’s a great event. Super happy to be a winner,” Rybakina said.
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Fritz added: “It’s awesome. You come here to try and win it. It was super exciting to play with Elena. She played great.”
With their partnership off to such a great start, could fans see them team up in the new mixed doubles event at the US Open?
Organisers of the hard-court Grand Slam announced recently that the tournament will undergo a major overhaul as it will be played over two days with the early-round matches being best-of-three sets.
Eight teams will earn direct entry via their combined singles ranking while the other eight will come via wildcard entries.
Tennis power couples Stefanos Tsitsipas and Paula Badosa, and Alex de Minaur and Katie Boulter have indicated they will enter.
But those teams will be up against it if the big-serving duo of Fritz and Rybakina enter the draw.
After their Eisenhower Cup success, Fritz said: “I just asked her if she wants to play mixed at the US Open so let’s see. Hopefully, she says yes.
Rybakina replied: “Hopefully, we’ll play.”
And it is easy to see why both are excited about continuing the partnership at Flushing Meadows in August.
“The strategy was to take care of our serves, we are both big servers,” he said. “Before we started, I think I said I think if we both serve well I don’t know how we’re really gonna lose,” Fritz said.
Rybakina continued: “It was really fun and also Taylor was giving me some advice on the returns since the guys are serving was going to be good. It’s not easy to return, but I think we did great today. Yeah, super happy.”
