Alcaraz and Williams entertain New York but bow out of mixed doubles
Carlos Alcaraz and Serena Williams partnered in the US Open mixed doubles, winning their opening match in front of a large crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium. They were then defeated by Flavio Cobolli and Belinda Bencic in the quarter-finals. Alcaraz was playing his first competitive match since April after a wrist injury.
The pairing brought together 30 combined Grand Slam singles titles, with Williams' 23 and Alcaraz's seven. Williams won the mixed doubles title in its original format in 1998 with Max Mirnyi, five years before Alcaraz was born. Their opening match drew roughly 15,000 spectators to Arthur Ashe Stadium, where they won eight of the final nine games after a nervy start that included an Alcaraz double-fault on the first point.
The revamped mixed doubles format, introduced last year, allows top-ranked singles players direct entry while established doubles specialists must qualify. All four doubles-specialist pairings lost to singles players on Tuesday. Alcaraz admitted he was nervous before stepping out, having been sidelined nearly five months with a wrist injury, while Williams said she never expected to return to the court where she won six of her 23 major singles titles.
This story may signal a shift in how tennis tournaments balance star power against competitive integrity. The mixed doubles format change could affect doubles specialists' livelihoods and the sport's traditional structure, while drawing new audiences through marquee pairings. Fans benefit from rare cross-generational moments, and Alcaraz's return may boost interest in his singles campaign. However, purists could view the format as diminishing doubles as a serious discipline, potentially reshaping how future slams structure their events.