Serena Williams walked back onto Arthur Ashe Stadium 1,453 days after what had looked like her final US Open match. Carlos Alcaraz followed her through the tunnel carrying a comeback story of his own.
More than 10,000 people were already inside on August 25 when Williams and Alcaraz emerged in matching purple-and-black Nike kits for the US Open Mixed Doubles Championship. The public-address announcer worked through Williams’ accomplishments as the applause continued building, according to The Guardian.
Then Alcaraz double-faulted on the first point. The defending US Open men’s champion had not played a competitive match since suffering a right wrist injury in April and later admitted he was “really, really nervous.” Williams, meanwhile, was competing at Flushing Meadows for the first time since her emotional 2022 farewell.
Their partnership produced both sides of a comeback in a matter of hours. Williams and Alcaraz beat Erin Routliffe and Lloyd Glasspool 5-3, 4-1, then returned to Ashe and lost 5-4(4), 4-1 to Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli in the quarterfinals.
Alcaraz Started Nervously Before Williams Helped Settle Him
The first match initially looked as though Alcaraz’s five-month layoff might be difficult to disguise. He opened with a double fault, was broken early and joined Williams in falling behind 1-3 before the match changed direction.
Williams held serve, the pair became more aggressive and they proceeded to win eight of the final nine games. One extended rally sent both players scrambling across the court before they somehow recovered the point, while Williams also produced a 120 mph ace during a performance that quickly reminded the crowd how much power remained in her game.
During a changeover, Alcaraz summarized the unusual experience of returning to competition alongside one of tennis’ most decorated players: “What else can I do? I’m playing next to the one and only Serena Williams.”
After the 58-minute victory, he acknowledged how obvious his nerves had been. “Everyone could see how nervous I was,” Alcaraz said. “I made a double fault on the first point. I was really, really nervous.” He said the feeling faded after a couple of games because Williams “made it easy for me.”
Williams was processing something different after the win. “I never expected to be back on this court,” she said in the US Open’s match coverage. “It’s just a really cool moment, I never thought this would happen.”
The First-Set Tiebreak Turned the Quarterfinal
Neither team managed a service break in the opening set, sending it to the shortened-format tiebreak with Williams and Alcaraz still within reach of another victory.
Williams punched a backhand volley away to make it 3-3 and then forced an error from Bencic with a return for a 4-3 advantage. That was their final point of the set. Cobolli responded with an overhead, and the Swiss-Italian pair swept the next three points to take the tiebreak 7-4.
The match moved decisively from there. Bencic and Cobolli secured the first break of the contest on Alcaraz’s serve in the second set and did not commit an unforced error during that set, according to Reuters and AP reporting carried by Al Jazeera. Cobolli served out the 55-minute victory at love.
Their reaction afterward reflected the unusual stature of the opponents across the net. Bencic said she and Cobolli could feel Williams and Alcaraz’s “aura,” while Cobolli acknowledged that facing them inside Arthur Ashe was difficult even for experienced professionals.
Williams’ US Open Is Not Over After All
What initially looked like Williams’ entire New York comeback changed the following morning. On August 26, the USTA announced that Serena and Venus Williams had received a wild card into the US Open women’s doubles draw. The sisters will play together at a Grand Slam for the first time since the 2022 US Open and are scheduled to begin their campaign on either September 3 or September 4.
She now has another opportunity to compete at Flushing Meadows alongside the partner with whom she has won 14 Grand Slam women’s doubles championships.
The sisters have two US Open doubles titles together, winning in 1999 and 2009. They reunited competitively earlier this month at the Cincinnati Open, their first match together in nearly four years, and pushed Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns to a match tiebreak before losing 6-2, 1-6, 10-8.
Serena’s broader comeback began in June at Queen’s Club, where she returned to professional tennis in doubles after nearly four years away.
Alcaraz Now Turns to His US Open Title Defense
The 23-year-old missed Roland Garros and Wimbledon as well as the major North American tune-up events in Toronto and Cincinnati. His recovery stretched close to five months before he finally returned to competition alongside Williams in New York.
Alcaraz said he had been away so long that he had “almost forgot how it felt to step on court once again,” even though practice sessions had prepared him physically for the return.
The stakes rise considerably from here. Alcaraz remains in the men’s singles draw as the defending US Open champion, with main-draw play beginning August 30. His 2025 title was his second in New York after his breakthrough championship in 2022.
