Serena Williams, Alcaraz set for US Open mixed doubles
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NEW YORK (AP):
Serena Williams will team up with Carlos Alcaraz to form a blockbuster mixed doubles partnership on her return to the US Open.
The US Tennis Association (USTA) announced yesterday that Williams and Alcaraz had been awarded a wild card into the tournament. The mixed doubles main draw begins on Tuesday, with the winning team sharing US$1 million.
It will be Williams’ first appearance at the US Open since 2022. The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion returned to tennis this summer.
“Let’s gooooo!” Alcaraz posted on X, with a fire emoji and tagging Williams.
Williams is not planning to play singles in New York. The USTA had been holding one women’s wild card, presumably in case Williams wanted it. However, the tournament announced yesterday that it had been awarded to American Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion.
Williams played singles at Wimbledon but sustained a knee injury in her first-round loss. She later played doubles with older sister Venus at the Cincinnati Open, and the pair could still opt to play together at the US Open.
Alcaraz announced this week that he would return to defend his US Open singles title after being sidelined since April with a right wrist injury.
Serena Williams won a mixed doubles title at the US Open even before capturing any of her six singles crowns there. She teamed with Max Mirnyi to win the 1998 championship. Mirnyi now works with world number one Aryna Sabalenka.
The mixed doubles tournament is very different now after the USTA revamped it last year into a two-day, 16-team event designed to attract more top singles players.
Few names in tennis are bigger than Williams and Alcaraz, the two-time US Open men’s champion who is ranked number two in the world.
The USTA also announced several updates to the field after a number of players withdrew from the competition.
Americans Jessica Pegula and Taylor Fritz will team up after their previous partners, Jack Draper and Elena Rybakina, pulled out with injuries. The teams of Emma Navarro and Tommy Paul, along with Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik, received the remaining two wild cards into the main draw.
Diana Shnaider also remains in the field and will have the opportunity to find a new partner after Daniil Medvedev withdrew.
There are two spots to be determined through an eight-team qualifying tournament on Monday. The USTA awarded wild cards to the teams of Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev, and Peyton Stearns and Christian Harrison, to be part of that field. The field is otherwise largely made up of traditional doubles specialists who missed out on the chance to play in the US Open last year, with direct entry based on the players’ combined singles rankings.
US Open mixed doubles field
Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic, Pegula and Fritz, Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud, Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli, Amanda Anisimova and Learner Tien, two-time defending champions Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, Alex Eala and Felix Auger-Aliassime, Leylah Fernandez and Frances Tiafoe, Taylor Townsend and Alexander Zverev, Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils, Williams and Alcaraz, Muchova and Mensik, and Navarro and Paul.