Tennis-Star-studded pairing Djokovic and Sabalenka stunned in US Open mixed doubles

Top seeds Novak Djokovic and ​Aryna Sabalenka suffered an early exit ​from the U.S. Open mixed ‌doubles ​on Tuesday, falling 1-4 4-2 10-2 to Henry Patten and Katerina Siniakova in their opening match. Djokovic, a 24-times Grand ‌Slam singles champion, and four-times major winner Sabalenka made a strong start by taking the opening set. But Patten and doubles specialist Siniakova hit back to claim the second ‌before dominating the tiebreak to secure a place in the quarter-finals.

Siniakova sealed the ‌upset in style with an ace out wide on match point, ending the tournament hopes of the star-studded pairing. "It wasn't looking very good for a while, in this format we play one bad ⁠game ​and all of ⁠a sudden the first set's gone," Patten said.

"We knew the same could happen in the second, and ⁠we played an amazing tiebreak. Kat acing Novak on match point was great." The mixed doubles ​championship is once again being staged in the week before the singles main ⁠draw, after organisers revamped the format last year to attract more leading singles players by reducing the ⁠field ​and giving the event a standalone slot on the calendar.

The revamped format proved a commercial success in its debut year, drawing sellout crowds and attracting many ⁠of the sport's biggest singles names despite criticism from some doubles specialists, who argued ⁠it marginalised established ⁠pairings. Italian duo Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori went on to retain the title by defeating Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud in ‌last year's ‌final.