The final four duos remaining in this competition skew more heavily towards singles stars than doubles specialists, but there are some through lines among those remaining: agility, chemistry and, yes, experience.
Gaël Monfils, who will turn 40 years old next week and has announced he will retire after this season, has primarily built a career out of singles excellence, as has his partner Elina Svitolina. But the two have plenty of familiarity with each other, given that they’ve been married since 2021 and have a 4-year-old daughter! So it’s no surprise they have developed an on-court chemistry to match their off-court connection, despite a relative lack of experience in mixed doubles.
Andrey Rublev also specializes in singles but he won the gold medal in mixed doubles in 2021 at the Tokyo Olympics. His mixed doubles partner this time around, Mirra Andreeva, is also a successful doubles player, even as singles has become her calling card. She ranked as high as No. 12 in WTA’s doubles rankings and took the silver medal in women’s doubles at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Belinda Bencic, who will face Monfils/Svitolina alongside Flavio Cobolli tonight, is also an Olympic silver medalist in women’s doubles, doing so at the Covid-delayed Tokyo 2020 Games.
