When Bethanie Mattek-Sands hit a return winner off Michael Venus’s second serve to claim the mixed doubles title at the US Open for the second straight year, she clenched her fist, ran up to her partner, Jamie Murray, and gave him a high five. Then she looked perplexed. She was just happy she'd won the point. He had to tell her that the match was over and that they'd won the championship.
"So I didn't know it was match point," she explained. "Actually I was really far off. I thought it was 3-2 in the games... I was doing math, I was 'Okay, if we break here, I might have to serve it out.' I got way too far ahead of myself, which is a bummer. Last year, I knew it was match point. I had all these amazing match point jump and celebration shots. I had nothing this year! I was just zoned into how I wanted to play, reading his serve."
Mattek-Sands has reason to be so in the zone, so into her tennis. While competing in the Australian Open this past January, she felt some pain in her right knee, the same knee that required surgery and sidelined her for a year after a harrowing injury at Wimbledon in 2017. A scan revealed that she'd need to have surgery again; she didn't return to the tour until the grass court season in July.
"It's a journey," she said. "That's why I enjoy these moments so much. You don't know what's going to happen next week, next year. I fell in love with tennis again, so I appreciate the competition, I appreciate the stadium matches."
She also undoubtedly enjoys lifting a Grand Slam trophy after so much time away. She and Murray are the first mixed doubles teams to repeat at Flushing Meadows since 1982, when Kevin Curren and Anne Smith successfully defended their title. Murray has actually won the event the last three years running—he was also victorious with Martina Hingis in 2017. He's the first man to do that in the Open era.
"Jamie, you were on fire these whole two weeks," Mattek-Sands said at the trophy ceremony. "Honestly, with us, we have a lot of fun. He keeps me pretty grounded, I’m the energetic one!"
Added Murray: "[Bethanie] says I'm the yin to her yang."
Indeed, Mattek-Sands told reporters after the match that she was making him "drink some champagne out of the trophy." But beyond just having fun together, there's a reason they have such a high success rate. Their game styles sync up really nicely on a doubles court. Murray has incredible hands at the net, and Mattek-Sands is aggressive, always looking to coming in after every shot. (Just watch that match point again.) The combination consistently frustrated their opponents, the No. 1 seeds Venus and Hao-Ching Chan, throughout Saturday's match.
"Bethanie's a great player, great mixed player, great partner for me," Murray said. "I think she really complements what I can do well on the court."
In fact, he realized they would make a great pair at an unlikely moment: after losing to her in Rio in 2016.
"[Johanna Konta and I] had the toughest draw in the tournament, because we lost to Beth and Jack Sock in the first round, who went on to win it," he said. "That was, like, the third or fourth time I'd lost to Beth. I was like, 'If I get the chance to play with her, I got to make sure I do, because she's always beating up on me!'"
