Serena Williams getting back on the court at the US Open after a four-year absence and Carlos Alcaraz returning to competitive tennis after being out the past four months with injury brought cheers and nostalgia to the Grand Slam tournament.
The celebration was short-lived.
After winning their debut playing together, Williams and Alcaraz got knocked out in the mixed doubles quarterfinals by Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli 5-4 (4), 4-1 on Tuesday. Cobolli before the match called their opponents “the queen of tennis and the king of now.”
The star-studded duo with a combined eight US Open singles championships certainly earned that praise. Williams and Alcaraz bounced back from a slow start in the first round to defeat Erin Routliffe and Lloyd Glasspool 5-3, 4-1, much to the delight of fans inside Arthur Ashe Stadium who were clearly on their side.
“I never expected to be back on this court,” Williams said after her first match at Flushing Meadows since 2022. “I never thought this would happen.”
Now the question is whether she will seek an encore performance in women's doubles alongside older sister Venus. They won the US Open twice among their 14 Grand Slam doubles titles together.
Serena, who is back playing tennis at age 44, does not plan to play singles.
Williams in her latest mixed doubles cameo — she won the US Open with Max Mirnyi in 1998 — hit some vintage shots that looked straight out of her prime. Early on, she carried Alcaraz, the 23-year-old defending champion who's ranked third in the world in men’s singles and was clearly rusty in his first competitive action since April 14.
“I think everybody could see: I double-faulted on the first point,” said Alcaraz, who missed the French Open and Wimbledon because of a right wrist injury and wore a sleeve on that arm. “I was really, really nervous. I was out for four months ... I almost forget how it feels.”
Fans chanted, “Come on, Carlos!” and “Let's go, Serena, let's go!” But the pair was overpowered by Bencic and Cobolli, letting a first-set tiebreaker slip away and getting dominated in the second.
Cobolli acknowledged being tight because Williams and Alcaraz were on the other side. Bencic said Williams tried to intimidate her — by saying she speaks Italian better.
“It was surreal to play against Carlos,” Bencic said. “Sometimes I was just standing at the volley or the return, and I was like, ‘How did I end up on this court?’ I don’t really know. Just a huge honor. Obviously you can feel both of their auras.”
The matches in the first three rounds feature sets to four games, with a tiebreaker at 4-all and a 10-point tiebreaker instead of a third set. Only the final on Wednesday night will resemble a regular match, with traditional sets to six games.
The champions get $1 million in the second year of the new mixed doubles format that is meant to attract top players. Joining Bencic and Cobolli in the semifinals were Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils; Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev; and Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik.
