Frances Tiafoe, Madison Keys among pairings in US Open mixed doubles event

When it came to finding a partner for the newly formatted mixed doubles event at this year’s U.S. Open, it seemed like a no-brainer for World No. 6-ranked Madison Keys.

The reigning Australian Open champion is partnered with Frances Tiafoe, with whom Keys shares an almost sibling-like relationship.

“It was pretty easy. When they announced the new format and all of the things, he was kind of the first person that popped into my head,” Keys told The Post. “I’ve known him for many, many years. We lived in the same apartment building for a very long time, and I feel like I basically had to try to keep him alive. I just really enjoy being around him. I really like giving him s–t and just kind of poking fun at him. And I feel like he’s also obviously a phenomenal tennis player.

“It just felt like if I was going to do this, I wanted to do it with someone who I was going to just have the most fun with.”

Keys and Tiafoe are among the 16 pairings taking part in this year’s event, which has gone through a drastic shake-up that has been met with intrigue and criticism.

The tournament begins Tuesday with a field that was shrunk from 32 to 16 and includes some of tennis’ top players in the world, including 10 major singles champions and a combined 54 Grand Slam titles among them.

Carlos Alcaraz is playing with Emma Raducanu; Venus Williams will play with Reilly Opelka; and Jessica Pegula is teaming up with Jack Draper, to name a few.

Jannik Sinner is slated to play with Katerina Siniakova, but after Sinner retired from the Cincinnati Open final on Monday due to illness, there is some question whether he’ll still compete in the mixed doubles in Queens.

The mixed doubles will take place over a two-day period — the first two rounds will be held Tuesday, followed by the semifinals and final Wednesday — all at Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong stadium, with the winning pair taking home a $1 million shared prize.

Teams will only need to win four games in order to win a set, and there will be no advantage scoring.

In the final, it will remain a best-of-three-set match, but the team will need to win six games to clinch the set.

The new format hasn’t come without its critics, in particular, those deemed doubles specialists, who are missing out on getting to play in the revamped tournament.

Sem Verbeek, the Wimbledon mixed doubles champion, told BBC that his “heart is bleeding” over the format change for the U.S. Open event.

While the superstar pairings will draw more attention, it leaves a lot of doubles specialists missing out on competing.

“I’m not going to actively root against it for it not to be a success,” he said. “The positive I can think of is that there’s going to be more people that can see the top single stars earlier in the tournament when they are maybe a bit more accessible to the public. But as a doubles athlete, my heart is bleeding.”