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Serena Williams, Carlos Alcaraz Start US Open Mixed Doubles vs. Team with Women's Doubles Champ

Serena Williams, of the United States, reacts after a winning point during a women's doubles match with her sister Venus Willams against Marta Kostyuk, of Ukraine, and Peyton Stearns, also of the United States, at the Cincinnati Open tennis tournament, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026, in Mason, Ohio. (AP Photo/Kareem Elgazzar)
Serena Williams, of the United States, reacts after a winning point during a women's doubles match with her sister Venus Willams against Marta Kostyuk, of Ukraine, and Peyton Stearns, also of the United States, at the Cincinnati Open tennis tournament, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026, in Mason, Ohio. (AP Photo/Kareem Elgazzar)
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Serena Williams, Carlos Alcaraz Start US Open Mixed Doubles vs. Team with Women's Doubles Champ

Serena Williams, of the United States, reacts after a winning point during a women's doubles match with her sister Venus Willams against Marta Kostyuk, of Ukraine, and Peyton Stearns, also of the United States, at the Cincinnati Open tennis tournament, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026, in Mason, Ohio. (AP Photo/Kareem Elgazzar)
Serena Williams, of the United States, reacts after a winning point during a women's doubles match with her sister Venus Willams against Marta Kostyuk, of Ukraine, and Peyton Stearns, also of the United States, at the Cincinnati Open tennis tournament, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026, in Mason, Ohio. (AP Photo/Kareem Elgazzar)

Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz will open the US Open mixed doubles tournament against a team that features the reigning women's doubles champion.

Williams and Alcaraz will face Erin Routliffe and Lloyd Glasspool on Tuesday in the first round of the championship, which will be Williams' first match at the US Open since 2022.

Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic might have an even tougher draw. The top seeds, based on having the lowest combined singles ranking in the 16-team field, face the team of Katerina Siniakova and Henry Patten — who are the No. 1-ranked doubles players on their respective tours.

The first round and quarterfinals are Tuesday. The semifinals and final are Wednesday.

Williams and Alcaraz were drawn to face one of the teams that emerged from the qualifying tournament that was held Monday, The Associated Press reported. That ended up being Routliffe and Glasspool, who won two matches, both requiring match tiebreakers, to secure their place in the main draw.

Routliffe teamed with Gabriela Dabrowski to beat Siniakova and Taylor Townsend for last year's US Open women's doubles title. They also won the championship in 2023.

Sabalenka and Djokovic had been slated to play Leylah Fernandez and Frances Tiafoe. But Tiafoe withdrew from mixed doubles Monday after losing to Arthur Fils in the Cincinnati Open final on Sunday, opening the door for a team that lost in qualifying to nevertheless earn a spot.

Siniakova and Patten won both their matches to reach the main draw. Kristina Mladenovic and Marcelo Arevalo, who lost to Routliffe and Glasspool in their second match, got the remaining spot and will play Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik.

The eight-team qualifying tournament was added this year to give the traditional doubles specialists an opportunity to compete for the US Open title.

When the tournament was overhauled last year — with a $1 million prize for the winners — in an effort to get top singles players to compete, direct entry was based on singles rankings, essentially shutting out the players who largely focus on doubles.

Williams is not planning to play singles in New York. Alcaraz, who has been sidelined since April with a right wrist injury, will return to defend his singles title.

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Roger Federer Is Coming Back to Play at the US Open, but Not Interested in Coming Back to Pro Tennis

Swiss former tennis player Roger Federer (front) arrives to practice on the main court at Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, US, 24 August 2026. (EPA)
Swiss former tennis player Roger Federer (front) arrives to practice on the main court at Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, US, 24 August 2026. (EPA)
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Roger Federer Is Coming Back to Play at the US Open, but Not Interested in Coming Back to Pro Tennis

Swiss former tennis player Roger Federer (front) arrives to practice on the main court at Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, US, 24 August 2026. (EPA)
Swiss former tennis player Roger Federer (front) arrives to practice on the main court at Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, US, 24 August 2026. (EPA)

Roger Federer is actually nervous about his tennis.

The man who won five straight US Open championships during the height of his dominance of the sport is set to play again in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Tuesday night for the first time since 2019. And he's not quite sure how the game that perhaps nobody ever made look more elegant will appear now.

“I haven’t played a singles set in, I don’t know, (Hubert) Hurkacz at Wimbledon maybe, so it’s been five years,” Federer said Monday, referring to his 2021 quarterfinal loss in his last Grand Slam match. “I don’t know how it’s going to go tomorrow. So, there is a lot of uncertainty but a lot of happiness that I can return to Arthur Ashe, a place where I have had so many beautiful moments.”

It's only one set of singles in an exhibition against Andy Roddick and one set of doubles with John McEnroe against Roddick and Andre Agassi. The winner of 20 Grand Slam singles titles should be fine for those.

But a return to tennis beyond that, competing in major tennis tournaments in his mid-40s like Venus and Serena Williams?

“No, no, no, no. No, not at all,” Federer said during a news conference. “Thanks for asking. I wasn’t sure if the question was going to get asked, but I’m happy you did so I can clarify in case anybody thought.”

At 45, Federer still looks fit, and said he enjoys working out in the gym. But he said he goes through long stretches where he is rarely on the court.

His lengthy absence from the US Open has done little to dampen his popularity, based on the amount of people around the grounds who were mentioning his name. The appearance of “Roger Federer” up on the big board for all to see again, ahead of his afternoon practice on Ashe, where Federer collected the trophy every year from 2004-08, was a welcome sight for his fans.

The trip to New York is a stop for Federer on his way to Newport, Rhode Island, where he will be enshrined in the International Tennis Hall of Fame on Saturday.

Federer never really had the chance to say goodbye to New York as a player, because there was no way to know his loss to Grigor Dimitrov in the 2019 quarterfinals would be his last match. He had reached the French Open semifinals and the Wimbledon final earlier that year, falling to Rafael Nadal in Paris and then Novak Djokovic in a fifth-set tiebreaker at the All England Club.

It was easy to imagine him returning to the US Open the next year and making another deep run. But after falling to Djokovic in the semifinals of the Australian Open to begin 2020, he had knee surgery that February, then another procedure in May.

He returned to play in the French Open in 2021 but had to withdraw before his fourth-round match. After the loss to Hurkacz — where he appeared struggling and lost 6-0 in the third set — Federer had another knee surgery that August and knew there would be no more comebacks.

“The knee can’t do it anymore. It’s tired,” he recalled thinking. “The mind can’t be patient even more and wait for another couple years and see what happens.”

Federer knows Tuesday night won't be real tennis, joking that he and Roddick hopefully would be respectful and not try to drop shot each other. But it will be different from when he did return to Ashe a couple of years back to watch.

“They gave me an ovation because they saw me on the big screen, but I just feel, like, tomorrow and I guess today, as well, and Monday next week, it really gives me a true opportunity to say thank you and goodbye, which I think is important for some,” Federer said. "It’s a nice thing to do, for sure."

Sports

Iraq's Australian Coach Arnold Renews Contract for 6 Months

Iraq's Australian coach Graham Arnold. Reuters
Iraq's Australian coach Graham Arnold. Reuters
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Iraq's Australian Coach Arnold Renews Contract for 6 Months

Iraq's Australian coach Graham Arnold. Reuters
Iraq's Australian coach Graham Arnold. Reuters

Iraq's Australian coach Graham Arnold has renewed his contract with the team until 2027, the country's FA said on Monday.

After weeks of speculation, the IFA made the announcement at a press conference attended by the 63-year-old, confirming he would remain in ⁠charge through the ⁠Gulf Cup in Saudi Arabia in September, as well as the Asian Cup early next year.

"I have renewed my contract for ⁠six months and this decision is in my best interest and in the best interest of the Iraq national team, although the association offered me a four-year extension," Arnold was quoted as saying by the Iraqi News Agency.

Arnold guided ⁠Iraq ⁠to this year's World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, ending a 40-year absence from the tournament. However, Iraq exited at the group stage after losing all of their Group I matches against Norway, France and Senegal.

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PSG Coach Warns Players Need to Compete Out of their Comfort Zone

Soccer Football - Ligue 1 - Stade Rennes v Paris St Germain - Roazhon Park, Rennes, France - August 23, 2026 Paris St Germain coach Luis Enrique with Vitinha REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
Soccer Football - Ligue 1 - Stade Rennes v Paris St Germain - Roazhon Park, Rennes, France - August 23, 2026 Paris St Germain coach Luis Enrique with Vitinha REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
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PSG Coach Warns Players Need to Compete Out of their Comfort Zone

Soccer Football - Ligue 1 - Stade Rennes v Paris St Germain - Roazhon Park, Rennes, France - August 23, 2026 Paris St Germain coach Luis Enrique with Vitinha REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
Soccer Football - Ligue 1 - Stade Rennes v Paris St Germain - Roazhon Park, Rennes, France - August 23, 2026 Paris St Germain coach Luis Enrique with Vitinha REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

Paris Saint-Germain players can ill afford to cruise through the season as coach Luis Enrique warned he expected them to play out of their comfort zone.

The PSG coach took off both Ousmane Dembélé and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia at halftime of their opening game of the new Ligue 1 season, bringing on Mika Godts and Ferran Torres, who scored twice to salvage a point at Stade Rennais on Sunday.

"Football is like that. Paris Saint-Germain have won nothing, nothing," he said of the new season where they defend not only their Ligue 1 title but chase a third successive Champions League victory.

"If you think about what you've won, you're not ⁠going to win ⁠anything! There is no credit. You have to show every day, every match, every training session, that you're ready. Otherwise, it's easy to relax and start slipping.

"I wasn't brought up that way. We are always looking to win, and to keep winning, you have to step outside your comfort zone. Is that clear?"

PSG, who won the European ⁠Super Cup this month but lost the French version to Racing Lens, played a sluggish first half at Rennes and were 2-0 down at the break.

But new Spanish signing Ferran Torres, who netted the winner in last month's World Cup final, came on for Dembélé and scored twice to ensure a point for the Parisians.

"He wasn't bad, was he? He scored two goals, but I'm happy with everyone who came on in a very difficult match because we had a lot of trouble controlling Rennes in the first half," Reuters quoted Luis Enrique as saying.

"They ⁠were good ⁠on the counterattack and scored two wonderful goals. It was complicated, but it's important for me to see that so many players are ready.

"We sign players to go on a long journey with them. It's very positive for him and we're very happy," he said of Ferran Torres' debut.

"We're always looking to find the best players for every match. Places in the team will be more difficult to get than last year, and that's our ambition.

"I think we had a very good transfer window, and we're still open to different possibilities. Everyone knows how difficult it is for a team to keep winning. And clearly, we still need to improve."