Serena Williams Wins on US Open Return With Carlos Alcaraz

Serena Williams returned to Arthur Ashe Stadium for her first US Open match since 2022 and immediately found a winning partner in Carlos Alcaraz, as the unlikely generational pairing defeated Erin Routliffe and Lloyd Glasspool 5-3, 4-1 in the first round of the 2026 US Open Mixed Doubles Championship.

The score suggests a comfortable 58-minute victory. The opening minutes told a different story.

Williams and Alcaraz lost the first two games, with Alcaraz showing understandable signs of rust in his first competitive appearance since April 14 following a four-month absence caused by a wrist injury. His timing was unsettled, his movement lacked its usual certainty and he opened the match with a double fault.

Williams, 44, was the player who initially stabilized the partnership.

She struck a backhand winner on the first ball she touched, began finding clean returns and helped pull the pair back into the opening set. By the time Alcaraz settled into the match, the atmosphere and momentum inside Arthur Ashe Stadium had changed with him.

For Williams, the victory extended a comeback that has already taken her from Wimbledon’s 2026 comeback conversation to another competitive appearance alongside Venus Williams in Cincinnati. For Alcaraz, it provided something he had been unable to obtain for four months: actual match pressure before defending his US Open singles title.

Serena Williams returned to New York as the steadier player

The obvious assumption entering the match was that Alcaraz would provide most of the contemporary match sharpness while Williams supplied experience, instinct and the enormous crowd connection that accompanies virtually every appearance she makes in New York.

For the beginning of the match, the opposite happened.

Alcaraz looked like someone who had not played competitive tennis for four months. That should hardly have been surprising. The Sports Encounter had already examined the uncertainty surrounding his preparation when Alcaraz withdrew from the Cincinnati Open because of his wrist injury.

Practice can rebuild movement patterns and confidence. It cannot completely reproduce the unpredictability of a live match, particularly when serves, returns and quick reactions immediately place pressure on an injured wrist.

Alcaraz acknowledged afterward that nerves played a part in the opening. His first point ended with a double fault, while his movement and serving initially lacked their familiar rhythm.

Williams did not have the same problem.

She won 15 points during the opening set compared with nine for Alcaraz, according to the Associated Press, and produced one of the most striking moments of the match when she hit a 120 mph ace late in the set. Alcaraz eventually supplied the forehand winner that closed it.

By then, their roles were beginning to balance out.

The first two games had belonged to Routliffe and Glasspool. The rest of the match increasingly belonged to Williams and Alcaraz.

This was not exhibition opposition

One detail deserves more attention than it is likely to receive in the first wave of coverage.

Routliffe and Glasspool were not a celebrity pairing assembled simply to complete a star-heavy draw.

Both are former doubles world No. 1s. Routliffe is a two-time US Open women’s doubles champion, winning at Flushing Meadows in 2023 and again in 2025.

The pair also had to qualify for the mixed doubles main draw one day earlier.

According to the official US Open tournament report, Routliffe and Glasspool survived two demanding qualifying matches. They beat Luisa Stefani and Neal Skupski 4-1, 3-5, 10-7 before edging Kristina Mladenovic and Marcelo Arevalo 5-4(4), 2-4, 11-9.

That matters when assessing what Williams and Alcaraz actually achieved.

Mixed doubles under this condensed format can punish a poor service game almost immediately. Routliffe and Glasspool understood those margins and brought far more doubles-specific experience into the contest.

Williams and Alcaraz still solved the matchup after falling two games behind.

Why the unusual US Open format changed the match

The 2026 mixed doubles championship operates differently from conventional Grand Slam doubles.

From qualifying through the semifinals, matches are played as best-of-three-set contests with sets running only to four games, no-ad scoring and a tiebreak at 4-4. If the teams split the opening two sets, a 10-point match tiebreak decides the winner.

The final returns to six-game sets but retains no-ad scoring and the 10-point deciding tiebreak.

That compressed structure makes the opening of Tuesday’s match especially interesting.

Going 0-2 down in a normal six-game set creates room for recovery. Going 0-2 down when the set ends at four games puts immediate pressure on almost every remaining service game.

Williams and Alcaraz therefore had very little time to solve their early problems.

They did.

Once Williams helped establish the rhythm and Alcaraz began timing the ball properly, their opponents struggled to regain the initiative. The second set became considerably more straightforward, ending 4-1.

Carlos Alcaraz finally got the test his wrist needed

The mixed doubles result carries another layer because of what comes next.

Alcaraz is the defending US Open men’s singles champion, and his wrist has been one of the central questions surrounding the tournament. The Sports Encounter’s complete US Open 2026 preview identified his fitness and lack of recent competition as critical variables in the men’s title race.

Tuesday did not answer whether his wrist can withstand a best-of-five-set singles match. Mixed doubles creates completely different physical demands, and 58 minutes on court cannot reproduce the accumulated stress of a Grand Slam singles campaign.

It did provide useful evidence.

Alcaraz served competitively, returned live pace, changed direction and progressively increased his confidence without an obvious interruption to the match. More importantly, he experienced something training sessions could not provide: nerves.

His admission that he almost had to remember what competitive tennis felt like after four months away helps explain why this mixed doubles tournament matters to him beyond entertainment.

The result gives him another match rather than another practice session.

Serena Williams has now created another US Open chapter

For Williams, New York carries a very different significance.

Her previous US Open appearance came in 2022, when her third-round singles defeat to Ajla Tomljanovic appeared to close one of the most influential careers in tennis history.

Instead, 2026 has gradually rewritten that ending.

Williams returned to competitive tennis earlier this year, moved back into the Grand Slam conversation at Wimbledon and later reunited with Venus in Cincinnati. The Sports Encounter followed that progression through the Williams sisters’ Cincinnati doubles return, where they pushed Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns into a deciding match tiebreak.

The Cincinnati result was a loss, but it demonstrated that Serena could still compete within the speed and reaction demands of high-level doubles.

New York provided the first victory of this US Open return.

The wider Williams story is also running through this year’s tournament. Venus, now 46, has received a singles wildcard, continuing the family’s connection with an event where both sisters became defining figures. The Sports Encounter has examined what Venus Williams’ US Open wildcard means at 46.

Serena’s return now gives that story another dimension.

Twenty-eight years separate Serena’s US Open mixed doubles title and this run

The historical symmetry is difficult to ignore.

Williams won the US Open mixed doubles championship in 1998 alongside Max Mirnyi.

Twenty-eight years later, she is pursuing the same title with a partner born in 2003.

Alcaraz grew up in a tennis world that Williams had already helped transform. By the time he emerged as a Grand Slam champion, Serena had spent decades changing expectations around athleticism, power, longevity and celebrity in the sport.

On Tuesday, those two eras occupied the same half of the court.

The connection could easily have become ceremonial. Instead, Williams was the player who helped rescue the first set while Alcaraz worked his way through the rust of his comeback.

That distinction gives the result more sporting value than the novelty of their names alone.

The US Open mixed doubles experiment is doing exactly what organizers wanted

The tournament’s redesigned mixed doubles championship was created partly to bring more leading singles players into the event and give mixed doubles its own high-profile window during Fan Week.

There has been criticism of that approach, particularly from doubles specialists concerned that established doubles teams have been squeezed by an event increasingly designed around star power.

Tuesday showed both sides of that argument.

Williams and Alcaraz filled Arthur Ashe Stadium with a level of attention rarely associated with the opening round of mixed doubles.

Elsewhere in the draw, however, elite doubles specialists demonstrated exactly why their expertise matters. Katerina Siniakova and Henry Patten knocked out top seeds Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic, reinforcing the tactical difference between assembling two famous singles players and building an effective doubles team.

That contrast makes the competition more interesting rather than less.

The championship also offers a $1 million prize to the winning team, giving the condensed tournament substantial competitive and commercial stakes.

For broader coverage of the final Grand Slam of the season, including singles contenders, injuries, scheduling and tournament storylines, follow The Sports Encounter’s Tennis Hub.

What comes next for Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz?

There is very little recovery time.

Williams and Alcaraz advance to face Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli in the quarterfinals later Tuesday.

Under the compressed tournament schedule, the mixed doubles championship moves quickly. Tuesday contains the opening round and quarterfinals before the semifinals and final take place Wednesday at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Another victory would therefore move Williams and Alcaraz within two matches of the title.

For Serena, that would deepen a comeback that once seemed impossible after her 2022 farewell. For Alcaraz, every competitive point carries another layer because his singles title defense is approaching after four months without tournament tennis.

Their first match together showed something neither reputation nor a wildcard could guarantee.

The partnership actually works.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who won Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz’s first US Open mixed doubles match?

Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz defeated Erin Routliffe and Lloyd Glasspool 5-3, 4-1 in the first round of the 2026 US Open Mixed Doubles Championship.

How long did the Williams-Alcaraz match last?

The match lasted 58 minutes at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

When did Serena Williams last play at the US Open before 2026?

Williams’ previous US Open match came in 2022. Her appearance alongside Alcaraz marked her first competitive match at Flushing Meadows in four years.

Why had Carlos Alcaraz been out of tennis?

Alcaraz had not competed since April 14 because of a wrist injury. His US Open mixed doubles debut was his first competitive match after approximately four months away.

Who will Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz play next?

They advance to face Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli in the quarterfinals.

Has Serena Williams won the US Open mixed doubles title before?

Yes. Williams won the US Open mixed doubles championship in 1998 alongside Max Mirnyi.

How does the 2026 US Open mixed doubles format work?

From qualifying through the semifinals, sets are played to four games with no-ad scoring, a tiebreak at 4-4 and a 10-point match tiebreak instead of a third set. The final uses conventional six-game sets with no-ad scoring and a deciding 10-point tiebreak if required.

Sources: Match result, duration and tournament details were verified through the official US Open, Reuters and The Associated Press.