Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz will open the U.S. Open mixed doubles tournament against a team that features the reigning women’s doubles champion.
Open since 2022. 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. 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.
Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic might have an even tougher draw. The first round and quarterfinals are Tuesday. The semifinals and final are Wednesday. Sabalenka and Djokovic had been slated to play Leylah Fernandez and Frances Tiafoe. The eight-team qualifying tournament was added this year to give the traditional doubles specialists an opportunity to compete for the U.S. Open title.
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 U.S. 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.
