Frances Tiafoe withdraws from US Open mixed doubles due to injury

American tennis star Frances Tiafoe is withdrawing from the U.S. Open mixed doubles event due to an injury, the tournament announced on Monday, Aug. 24.

Tiafoe and his mixed doubles partner, Canadian Leylah Fernandez, were scheduled to play a first-round match Tuesday, Aug. 25 against top-seeded pair Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic. After Tiafoe's withdrawal, Sabalenka and Djokovic will instead face doubles world No. 1s Katerina Siniakova and Henry Patten, who won two qualifying matches to reach the main draw.

Tiafoe, who reached the Cincinnati Open finals and lost to Frenchman Arthur Fils on Sunday night, has struggled with a wrist injury for the last several weeks. On Aug. 6, Tiafoe retired from his third-round match at the Canadian Open in Montreal due to a right hand injury, which doctors later discovered was a cyst. He had surgery to remove the cyst a few days later and decided to play Cincinnati against medical advice.

"They didn’t actually want me to play here," Tiafoe said after winning his semifinal match in Cincinnati. "They want me to kind of get right and get ready for obviously New York. But obviously every athlete’s stubborn."

For now, Tiafoe is still entered to play singles at the U.S. Open, where he reached the semifinals in 2022 and 2024. But he won't be among the stars playing mixed doubles, an event that takes place the week before singles competition starts and features Serena Williams/Carlos Alcaraz, Jessica Pegula/Taylor Fritz and more.

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