Serena Williams’ much-awaited return to the US Open ended in the mixed doubles quarter-finals after the American great and Carlos Alcaraz were beaten by Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The Swiss-Italian combination defeated Williams and Alcaraz 5-4(4), 4-1 on Tuesday to advance to the semi-finals of the revamped mixed doubles competition. The defeat brought an end to a brief but high-profile partnership that had drawn considerable attention to the event.
Dream pairing falls short
Williams and Alcaraz entered the tournament as wild cards and made an impressive start, defeating Erin Routliffe and Lloyd Glasspool 5-3, 4-1 in their opening-round match.
Their quarter-final proved considerably tougher. Neither team managed a service break in the opening set, forcing a tiebreak after the score reached 4-4. Williams helped her team move ahead 4-3 in the breaker, but Bencic and Cobolli responded by winning four consecutive points to take the set.
Cobolli and Bencic then seized control of the second set. The Italian produced a powerful return to secure the first break of the match and give his team a 3-1 advantage before serving out the contest to love. The match lasted 55 minutes.
Bencic admitted that facing two of the sport's biggest names had been an unusual experience, saying she and Cobolli could “feel their aura” across the net.
Serena’s memorable return
The tournament marked Williams’ first competitive appearance at the US Open since 2022. The 44-year-old, a 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, returned to the same Arthur Ashe Stadium where she had played what was widely expected to be the final match of her career four years earlier.
Williams is a six-time US Open singles champion and also has a mixed doubles title at Flushing Meadows, having won the event alongside Max Mirnyi in 1998.
For Alcaraz, the competition marked his return to competitive tennis after being sidelined by a wrist injury since April. The Spaniard, the defending US Open men's singles champion, was making only his second Grand Slam appearance in mixed doubles.
Bencic and Cobolli advanced to face married couple Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils in the semi-finals. Svitolina and Monfils booked their place in the last four with a 5-4(6), 4-5(3), 10-8 victory over Katerina Siniakova and Henry Patten.
The revamped US Open mixed doubles competition features shortened sets, no-ad scoring and a 10-point match tiebreak instead of a deciding third set through the semi-finals, with the champions set to receive $1 million.