PHOTOS: Tsitsidosa, Sabadosa, Danish doubles and more fun at the 2024 Eisenhower Cup
Amongst star-studded pairs, young Americans Emma Navarro and Ben Shelton won it all.
Tsitsidosa or Sabadosa? At Tuesday night's Eisenhower Cup, you didn't have to choose your fighter.
The BNP Paribas Open has hosted a version of Tie Break Tens—an innovative, short tennis exhbition format where competitors only play tiebreaks that launched in 2015—in four of five years since 2019, but in the last two years, has redefined the phrase, "Tennis United," by bringing together the top names on both tours for a night of relaxed, but inherently competitive, fun on the eve of the first combined ATP Masters 1000 and WTA 1000 event of the year.
The 2024 edition proved no different: World No. 1 Iga Swiatek and world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka teamed up with ATP Top 10 stars Hubert Hurkacz and Taylor Fritz, off-court couple Paula Badosa and Stefanos Tsitsipas shared the same side of the net, and Caroline Wozniacki made her much-anticipated return to the desert alongside countryman Holger Rune. Originally slated to include defending Indian Wells Elena Rybakina (partnering Andrey Rublev) and world No. 5 Jessica Pegula (partnering Tommy Paul), there were two last-minute lineup changes as both withdrew; Rybakina was repalced by Maria Sakkari, while Pegula was replaced by Sloane Stephens.
But amongst star-studded pairs, Grand Slam winners, and No. 1-ranked players, it was two former NCAA champions—Emma Navarro and Ben Shelton—who teamed up to win it all.
“I’m actually on a pretty good mixed doubles run now after the US Open,” a delighted Shelton told Tennis Channel afterwards.
"Whenever you get to play with somebody who hardly misses a ball the whole time we’re out here, it’s pretty cool and makes things a lot more fun. I think we enjoyed the playing but we also got along well and that makes things easier.”
Shelton and Navarro had to save a match point in their opening win over Sakkari and Rublev, courtesy of an ace out wide fired by the left-hander. Knowing a shot like that was available to their team enabled Navarro to play even more freely, as evidenced by her steely baseline exchanges and quick hands.
“I feel pretty confident standing there at the net when he’s serving. We had a lot of fun,” the WTA No. 23 said.
Check out some of the night's best photos, courtesy of photographer Robert Parange and Tennis.com's Matt Fitzgerald.
