Serena Williams is coming back to the US Open, and she is bringing a partner who happens to be the tournament's defending men's champion. The United States Tennis Association announced that Williams and Carlos Alcaraz received a wild card into the mixed doubles tournament, pairing a 23-time Grand Slam singles champion with a 22-year-old who is trying to prove his surgically cautious wrist can hold up under Flushing Meadows pressure.
The pairing marks Williams' first appearance at the US Open since 2022, and it comes just five days after she and sister Venus lost their first-round doubles match to Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns at the Cincinnati Open, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Williams returned to tennis this past summer after stepping away from the sport, playing singles at Wimbledon along the way. She has not said whether she will also play singles at the US Open, even though the USTA is holding a women's wild card open for her if she chooses to compete, the Chronicle reports.
A Star-Studded Reimagined Event
The mixed doubles event Williams and Alcaraz are entering looks nothing like the sleepy sideshow it once was. Reimagined in 2025 as a 16-team showcase held during Fan Week with a $1 million prize pool, the US Open Mixed Doubles Championship earned the Sports Breakthrough of the Year award at the 2026 Sports Business Journal Awards, according to USOpen.org. The format uses short sets to four games and a 10-point match tiebreak in place of a third set, a quicker structure designed to fit inside Fan Week programming while still drawing top singles talent.
That overhaul appears to be working. The 2026 main draw features world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka paired with Novak Djokovic, 2025 runners-up Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud, and Elena Rybakina with Taylor Fritz, per USOpen.org. Organizers also added an eight-team qualifying event this year to award two final main-draw spots, underscoring how competitive the event has become since its relaunch.
Alcaraz's Long Road Back From Injury
Williams will be walking onto the court with a partner who has not played a competitive match since April. Alcaraz has been sidelined by a right wrist injury he suffered at the Barcelona Open, a setback that forced him to miss Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the Cincinnati Open, as Hoodline previously reported. He spent weeks with the wrist immobilized in a cast during his rehabilitation before announcing his return to defend his US Open singles title.
Alcaraz enters New York with an eye-popping résumé at Flushing Meadows regardless of the layoff. He holds an 88.9 percent match winning percentage, a 24-3 record across five appearances, the highest men's singles win rate at the tournament in the Open Era, according to Xtreme Tennis News. He won US Open singles titles in 2022 and 2025, and in February he completed a career Grand Slam by winning the Australian Open, becoming the youngest man in tennis history to capture all four major singles titles at age 22 years and 272 days after beating Novak Djokovic in four sets in the Melbourne final, according to Sky News.
Williams' Own History In Mixed Doubles
Williams is no stranger to success in this particular event. She won two Grand Slam mixed doubles titles in 1998, at Wimbledon and the US Open, both while partnering Belarusian player Max Mirnyi as a 16-year-old, per the WTA. In fact, that Wimbledon mixed doubles title was her first career Grand Slam trophy. Across every discipline, Williams holds 39 total Grand Slam titles: 23 singles majors, 14 women's doubles titles won with Venus, and the two mixed doubles crowns, the WTA notes.
Her path back to competitive tennis this year has been anything but smooth. At 44, Williams made her competitive return in June at Queen's Club and then at Wimbledon after stepping away following the 2022 US Open, according to The Independent. Her Wimbledon singles return was cut short by a first-round injury, and last week's Cincinnati doubles loss with Venus marked the sisters' first non-Grand Slam WTA appearance together in a decade, since neither had played a tour-level event below a major or the Olympics since 2016.
What Comes Next At Flushing Meadows
The mixed doubles main draw is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday during Fan Week, with matches broadcasting live on ESPN2 and ESPN+ and reserved seating available in Arthur Ashe Stadium, per USOpen.org. Fan Week grounds admission remains free for fans wanting to watch practice courts and qualifying matches in person.
What remains unresolved is whether this will be a one-off doubles cameo or the start of a fuller comeback. Williams has not said whether she intends to use the singles wild card the USTA is holding for her, leaving open the possibility that her appearance alongside Alcaraz could turn into a full-fledged singles return at the tournament where she once dominated.
