NEW YORK — Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori defended their U.S. Open mixed doubles title Wednesday night, keeping a traditional team on top of a revamped event filled with singles stars .
The Italians beat No. 3 seeds Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud 6-3, 5-7 (10-6), winning four matches over two days to earn $1 million— a huge raise over their earnings in New York last year in a format that looked nothing like this one.
Errani and Vavassori were among the many critics of the changes to the event that shut out every other traditional doubles pairing, but had nothing but smiles — and plenty of hugs — after building a quick lead in the match tiebreaker and holding on in front of a large crowd inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“I think it was amazing to play in this court with so many people and