What do you get when you mix $90 million, six-minute matches, and Maria Sharapova walking a tennis court like a runway? The 2025 US Open, of course. This year’s tournament is already louder, faster, and a lot richer.

At the very beginning of the fourth grand slam of the year, there have been drama and shock exits. With everything from format changes to fashion on courts, this year’s tournament is pulling in more storylines than ever.

The Highest Reward Tournament Ever

The US Open is the richest tournament by far. The 2025 singles champion will receive $5 million, more than double the amount of the Australian Open winner, which is approximately $2.3 million. For comparison, the men's/women's singles champions receive $2.9 million at the French Open and $4.1 million at Wimbledon. Even if you lose in round one at the singles main draw, you can bring $110K home—that’s enough to buy 400 tennis racquets.

The total prize money this year has increased by 20%, from $75 million in 2024 to $90 million this year. The mixed doubles event awards $1M to the winning team, which is the defending champion Italian pair of Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori. In 2024, the Italian pair also won, but they only received $200,000.

Image Credit: Pixabay from Pexels

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Mixed Doubles Gets a Makeover

The mixed doubles events are held during the fan week preceding the singles main draw matches. Traditionally, 32 teams play sets to six games, in which winning one game requires a team to win at least 4 points. With only 16 teams in the draw, the new format includes short sets to four, a tiebreaker at four all, and no-ad scoring (a deciding point is played when both teams win three points in a game at 40-40). The event was held over only two days to complete the 15 matches.

Months before the event, the teams entering the tournament are hot pairs that fans have been calling to play together: Emma Raducanu & Alcaraz (off-court scandals of romance), Świątek & Ruud (clay court specialists), and Mirra Andreeva & Daniil Medvedev (Russia’s rising star teaming up with its quirkiest champion).

However, players have questioned whether the new format prioritizes entertainment and revenue over the integrity of the sport. Participating players Jack Draper and Karolina Muchova called it an “exhibition,” a telling slip of the tongue.

Image Credit: Gastón Cuello from Wikimedia Commons

Medvedev Match Point

On August 24, at the Louis Armstrong Stadium, Daniil Medvedev faced Benjamin Bonzi, a French player who had previously sent Medvedev home in the first round of Wimbledon.

At the third set, Medvedev was down 3-6, 5-7, 4-5, facing a match point. After Bonzi missed his first serve and was in motion of his second serve, a photographer unexpectedly entered the court. The chair umpire stopped Bonzi’s serve and gave him the chance to reserve his first serve. His opponent, Medvedev, immediately stormed up to the chair umpire, Greg Allensworth, arguing that Bonzi should not get another chance to serve his first serve.

“He wants to go home, guys, he doesn’t like to be here, he gets paid by the match, not by the hour,” Medvedev yelled to the camera when he was arguing with the judge, referring to the chair umpire wanting the game to end at three sets.

“What did Reilly Opelka say?” shouted Medvedev while waving his arms to elicit support from the crowd. Medvedev was referring to the umpire’s action at the Dallas Open, where tension started to rise when Opelka paused play to confront a spectator who repeatedly coughed when Opelka was serving, prompting Allensworth to issue a code violation and point penalty for swearing. Opelka explained that “Greg Allensworth is the worst ref in the ATP. We were literally talking about him in the locker room two days ago—he’s the worst on tour.”

Eventually, Bonzi had to re-serve his first serve amid relentless booing from the crowd, with an even louder wave of boos when he missed it. Then, after making the second serve and losing the match point, the audience couldn’t stop clapping for Medvedev.

The match ended with Medvedev’s early exit, losing 3-6, 5-7, 7-6, 6-0, 4-6.

Image Credit: Amaury Laporte from Wikimedia Commons

Maria Sharapova’s Return

On Monday at center court in Flushing Meadows, five years after she last played professionally and just two days after her Hall of Fame induction, Maria Sharapova will step back into the spotlight. She will be wearing a tennis dress that’s a new version of the dress she wore when she won the U.S. Open in 2006.

The dress, “inspired by Audrey Hepburn’s little black Givenchy dress in ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ and bedecked with Swarovski crystals at the neckline, was the first ‘evening’ dress worn by a female competitor,” according to The New York Times.

Image Credit: Yan Nasilevich from Wikimedia Commons

Conclusion

This year’s tournament feels less “buttoned-up” and more modern, experimental, and youth-driven. With the new format and increased prize money, we can see how the Grand Slam is evolving into a more business-driven event, rather than a pure tennis competition. Which isn’t to say that the event is getting boring and not providing the experiences fans expected; rather, it could inspire a new generation of tennis fans and attract more people from around the world to develop a love for the sport.

Whether you’re watching for the rackets or the red carpet, this year’s US Open is proof: tennis just had its glow-up. If the mixed doubles event were held again, which mixed doubles duo would you create if you could pair any two players?