It happens after almost every point in professional doubles tennis matches, as predictably as the ritualistic high-fiving and fist-bumping the players cannot seem to live without. The point is won or lost. The partners convene. And they have a little chat.

These conversations are inaudible to the rest of the world and sometimes stretch out longer than the points themselves. What are they talking about? Why are they covering their mouths with their hands? What can they possibly say each time that they have not already said?

“There’s nothing new to say, actually,” said the Polish player Mariusz Fyrstenberg, who has been playing doubles with his countryman Marcin Matkowski for 12 years.

And yet, according to Fyrstenberg and other doubles players at the United States Open this week, there is an awful lot to discuss — sometimes so much that spectators can feel they have paid to watch some people talk to each other, with regular breaks for tennis.