Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz to face qualifiers in US Open opener

Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz will have to wait a little longer to learn their first opponent in the U.S. Open mixed doubles championship. Williams and Alcaraz were drawn to face one of the teams that advances from the eight-team qualifying tournament. The winning team shares a prize.

Williams is returning to the U.S. Open for the first time since 2022. The six-time singles champion and Alcaraz, who has won the men’s title twice, were awarded a wild card into the 16-team tournament. Williams stepped away from tennis after the U.S. Open following a long career that included Grand Slam titles in singles and doubles with her older sister, Venus Williams. Williams never formally announced her retirement from the sport and returned to professional tennis playing doubles. She recently played doubles with her sister at the Cincinnati Open. It remains to be seen whether the Williams sisters will pair up again at the U.S. Open, with the women’s doubles draw scheduled to be announced later.

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Facing one of the qualifiers will be a tough assignment because most of the players in the qualifying tournament are doubles specialists. The qualifying tournament was added to give those types of players a chance to compete after they were almost entirely shut out when the U.S. Tennis Association, seeking more star power, revamped the mixed doubles and based direct entry on the players’ rankings in singles.

Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic earned the No. 1 seed after having the lowest combined singles ranking among the teams. They will face the pair of Leylah Fernandez and Frances Tiafoe in their first match. Americans Jessica Pegula and Taylor Fritz are seeded No. 2 and will open against Diana Shnaider and Casper Ruud. Ruud was scheduled to play again with Iga Swiatek after they reached the final, but Swiatek withdrew and Shnaider needed a partner after Daniil Medvedev pulled out.

Other first-round pairings feature matchups such as Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils against Alex Eala and Felix Auger-Aliassime, and Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli facing Taylor Townsend and Alexander Zverev at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York. Townsend initially planned to reunite with Ben Shelton, her partner in the previous U.S. Open mixed doubles tournament. Instead, Townsend partnered with Zverev after Zverev checked with Shelton about his plans, opening the path for Townsend to accept the wild card and team up with one of the most accomplished doubles players in the tournament. Bencic and Cobolli enter with established chemistry, having won the mixed doubles title at Indian Wells.

Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik face the other team from the qualifying tournament. Emma Navarro and Tommy Paul play Amanda Anisimova and Learner Tien. Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev face two-time defending champions Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori. Shnaider and Ruud also face Pegula and Fritz.

The first round and quarterfinals of the mixed doubles take place Tuesday, with the semifinals and final on Wednesday. Matches through the semifinals feature sets played to four games, no-ad scoring, and a match tiebreak instead of a third set.