After months of talk, we finally saw Stefanos Tsitsipas and Paula Badosa's debut in mixed doubles together, and it went pretty well.
Badosa and Tsitsipas had plans to team up for mixed doubles since they became a couple earlier this year. It didn't work out at Wimbledon and then at the US Open because the Spanish player was battling multiple injuries.
She's back to full health and returned at the World Tennis League, winning her first match back. It was a doubles match, so it was a solid return for Badosa, giving her team a good early start.
The unique format makes these doubles matches really important, so make sure you read the format breakdown below.
The exhibition event features a unique format: Players are paired up in teams of four, and each tie between teams consists of five matches. Each match features one set, and three of the five are doubles, with the remaining being singles.
Each game won in each match counts as one point, which matters most. At the end of each tie, the winning team is the one that has the most points. Because of how math works, the team that wins 3 out of the five likely wins the tie unless the other team manages to win dominantly 6-0 or 6-1 or something similar.
Neither team really struggled on their serve initially, but Medvedev and Kenin ran into some trouble at 3-3, and it proved their undoing. Tsitsidosa worked their way to the deuce and then won the deciding point to take a 4-3 lead. From there, it was a simple cruise towards the 6-4 finish.
It was a really solid performance from the Spanish-Greek combo, who could become a mixed pairing to watch for the rest of the year. The Kites now have a huge lead over the Eagles after two matches, 12-7.
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