New York (AFP) – Serena Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, and second-ranked Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, a seven-time Slam singles winner, will compete together in US Open mixed doubles, organizers announced Saturday. The US Tennis Association announced mixed doubles pairings topped by 44-year-old American Williams, making her return to the US Open for the first time since 2022.
However, she won’t be playing singles at the US Open. The USTA also announced that the last women’s wildcard berth into the main draw was issued to American Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open winner. When other wildcard spots were revealed on Tuesday, including one for Serena’s 46-year-old sister Venus, there had been one berth not announced.
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Serena Williams, a six-time US Open singles champion, captured the 1998 US Open mixed doubles title with Max Mirnyi. She and Alcaraz received one of the last three wildcard entries into the main draw for mixed doubles, with other spots going to Czechs Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik and Americans Emma Navarro and Tommy Paul.
Williams played women’s doubles with Venus for the first time since 2022 at Cincinnati but lost in the first round. Mixed doubles will begin on Tuesday and conclude on Wednesday at the National Tennis Center, where the regular US Open begins on August 30.
With Britain’s Jack Draper and Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan withdrawing from the US Open mixed doubles, their former partners — Americans Jessica Pegula and Taylor Fritz — re-paired together as a team and were given direct entry into the main draw. Diana Shnaider, left without a partner when fellow Russian Daniil Medvedev withdrew, will have the chance to find a new partner and play before the draw is made on Sunday ahead of Monday’s start of qualifying.
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