Mixed doubles always leave room for upsets galore.
That fate struck Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and British partner Joe Salisbury on Friday as the top-seed mixed doubles team at the US Open went down in the first round with a 4-6, 7-6 (7), 10-8 defeat to Kazakhstan’s Anna Danilina and Finland’s Harri Heliovaara.
Though the top pairing managed to handily win the opening set, a tight second set took away their momentum and by the time the tiebreaks rolled around in the third, they were unable to hold on.
Danilina and Heliovaara only managed to win a single break point but came away with the upset anyway. They’ll now face off against Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Belgium’s Joran Vliegen on Sep. 1.
The rest of the day also saw plenty of upsets, as the No. 2 seed pairing of New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and Michael Venus were knocked out in straight sets to the United States’ Alycia Parks and Jackson Withrow.
However, despite the top-two seeds being upset, contingents of those teams will linger on as Dabrowski and Routliffe form the top pairing in women’s doubles. They’ll play their second-round match against Catherine Harrison and Alicja Rosolska on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. ET.