Nikita Filin and Brandon Carpico have proven themselves time and time again at every level of tennis they’ve played. It stands to reason they’d find success at the US Open too.
The Ohio State duo won the American Collegiate Wildcard Playoff with ease, capping off a stellar collegiate season that saw them make the NCAA doubles final and end the year ranked No. 6 with a 37-6 record. They also won an M25 tournament in Columbus in late 2025, putting them on the map in the ATP doubles rankings. Poised to be a top duo again, at No. 3 in the ITA preseason rankings, Filin and Carpico have nothing to lose and everything to win at the last Grand Slam of the year.
The draw threw them into the deep end. First up on Friday morning, Filin and Carpico were up against Orlando Luz and Rafael Matos, the sixth-ranked duo in the ATP doubles race. Luz and Matos came into the US Open on a 10-match win streak, having won both the Canadian Open and the Cincinnati Open. Beating them would be a tall task; but Filin and Carpico were up to it.
Filin and Carpico hung with the more experienced team for most of the first set, even generating a break point at 3-3. After failing to convert that, though, Luz and Matos broke serve and eventually served out the set with a 6-4 scoreline. Filin and Carprico responded with an immediate break in the second set, but couldn’t hold onto it and the set went to a tiebreak.
At 5-4 in the tiebreak, with Matos serving, Carpico sent a backhand return streaking cross-court at an angle so sharp his opponents had no chance of getting to it. Two points later, he put away an overhead to seal the set.
Unlike the first two sets, there were no early breaks in the third, and with the match entering the eleventh hour, a second tiebreak felt inevitable. Filin and Carpico had other ideas.
Receiving at 5-5, they set up two break points but only needed one. Fending off attacks from the net, Filin sent up a lob, forcing a not-quite comfortable overhead from Luz, who was just slightly off-balance and missed it into the net. Filin and Carpico rode that momentum as they served for the match, finishing it off with a crafty volley from Filin.
Both players reached new career highs in the ATP doubles rankings as a result, with Carpico moving up to No. 446 and Filin at No. 384. As a duo, they debuted in this year’s ATP race at No. 190 — the same ranking as their next opponents, Marcelo Melo and John Peers. Melo and Peers are incredibly experienced doubles players, though, with both having individual top-2 career highs. It’ll be another tough match to win, but Filin and Carpico have proven they can rise to the challenge.
