The Italian pair of Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori successfully defended their U.S. Open mixed doubles championship on Wednesday, defeating Poland’s Iga Swiatek and Norway’s Casper Ruud 6-3, 5-7, 10-6 in the final at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York.

Errani and Vavassori captured their third Grand Slam title as a pair, having also won the French Open this year.

The event, moved to the week before the main draws of the U.S. Open begin, featured an unusual format. All rounds through the semifinals used first-to-four first and second sets, with a tiebreaker at 4-4 if necessary. The final set was replaced by a first-to-10 tiebreaker.

The championship match reverted to the standard first-to-six formats for the first two sets, but again the third set consisted of a first-to-10 tiebreaker.

Errani and Vavassori had a chance to close out the match late in the second set, but Swiatek and Ruud, who were seeded third, broke serve to pull even at 5-5.

In the decisive tiebreaker, the Italians won the first four points, maintained the lead at 8-4 and closed it out on their second match point.

In the semifinals earlier Wednesday, Swiatek and Ruud, two points away from a defeat, rallied to win the final six points and beat the United States’ Jessica Pegula and Great Britain’s Jack Draper 3-5, 5-3, 10-8.

In the closing tiebreaker, Pegula and Draper, the event’s top seeds, led 3-0 and 8-4, but they failed to win another point.

Swiatek delivered a volley winner on match point.

“I will remember this forever,” she said.

Errani and Vavassori prevailed 4-2, 4-2 over the U.S. pair of Danielle Collins and Christian Harrison in the other semifinal.

–Field Level Media