{"id":357481,"date":"2026-08-27T01:28:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T06:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/serena-williams-says-she-never-expected-us-open-return-as-carlos-alcaraz-admits-he-was-really-nervous"},"modified":"2026-08-27T01:28:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T06:28:26","slug":"serena-williams-says-she-never-expected-us-open-return-as-carlos-alcaraz-admits-he-was-really-nervous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/serena-williams-says-she-never-expected-us-open-return-as-carlos-alcaraz-admits-he-was-really-nervous","title":{"rendered":"Serena Williams Says She \u2018By no means Anticipated\u2019 US Open Return as Carlos Alcaraz Admits He Was \u2018Actually Nervous\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"text\">\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019 accomplishments as the applause continued building, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2026\/aug\/26\/serena-williams-carlos-alcaraz-us-open-tennis-mixed-doubles\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Then Alcaraz double-faulted on the first point. The defending US Open men\u2019s champion had not played a competitive match since suffering a right wrist injury in April and later admitted he was \u201creally, really nervous.\u201d Williams, meanwhile, was competing at Flushing Meadows for the first time since her emotional 2022 farewell.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<h2>Alcaraz Started Nervously Before Williams Helped Settle Him<\/h2>\n<p><noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Serena Williams &amp; Carlos Alcaraz are the Perfect Team! | 2026 US Open\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/h7VH4F5LG8o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p>The first match initially looked as though Alcaraz\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>During a changeover, Alcaraz summarized the unusual experience of returning to competition alongside one of tennis\u2019 most decorated players: \u201cWhat else can I do? I\u2019m playing next to the one and only Serena Williams.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After the 58-minute victory, he acknowledged how obvious his nerves had been. \u201cEveryone could see how nervous I was,\u201d Alcaraz said. \u201cI made a double fault on the first point. I was really, really nervous.\u201d He said the feeling faded after a couple of games because Williams \u201cmade it easy for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Williams was processing something different after the win. \u201cI never expected to be back on this court,\u201d she said in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usopen.org\/en_US\/news\/articles\/2026-08-25\/williams_and_alcaraz_advance_to_2026_us_open_mixed_doubles_quarterfinals.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">US Open\u2019s match coverage<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s just a really cool moment, I never thought this would happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>The First-Set Tiebreak Turned the Quarterfinal<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" style=\"background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Dceqou5J2gC\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\">\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>The match moved decisively from there. Bencic and Cobolli secured the first break of the contest on Alcaraz\u2019s serve in the second set and did not commit an unforced error during that set, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/8\/26\/serena-williams-carlos-alcaraz-fall-in-us-open-mixed-doubles-quarterfinal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Reuters and AP reporting carried by Al Jazeera<\/a>. Cobolli served out the 55-minute victory at love.<\/p>\n<p>Their reaction afterward reflected the unusual stature of the opponents across the net. Bencic said she and Cobolli could feel Williams and Alcaraz\u2019s \u201caura,\u201d while Cobolli acknowledged that facing them inside Arthur Ashe was difficult even for experienced professionals.<\/p>\n<h2>Williams\u2019 US Open Is Not Over After All<\/h2>\n<p>What initially looked like Williams\u2019 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>She now has another opportunity to compete at Flushing Meadows alongside the partner with whom she has won 14 Grand Slam women\u2019s doubles championships.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Serena\u2019s broader comeback began in June at Queen\u2019s Club, where she returned to professional tennis in doubles after nearly four years away.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Alcaraz Now Turns to His US Open Title Defense<\/h2>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Alcaraz said he had been away so long that he had \u201calmost forgot how it felt to step on court once again,\u201d even though practice sessions had prepared him physically for the return.<\/p>\n<p>The stakes rise considerably from here. Alcaraz remains in the men\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/> <br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/wealthofgeeks.com\/serena-williams-says-she-never-expected-us-open-return-as-carlos-alcaraz-admits-he-was-really-nervous\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":357484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4557],"tags":[33567,7139,33566,557,941,6326,33564,1721,173,33557,33565],"class_list":["post-357481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing","tag-arthur-ashe","tag-cincinnati","tag-nervously","tag-nike","tag-queen","tag-serena-williams","tag-the-cincinnati-open","tag-un-court","tag-united-states","tag-us-open","tag-wimbledon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357481"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":357483,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357481\/revisions\/357483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}