Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz exit US Open mixed doubles in quarter-finals; top seeds Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka out in first round

Star pairing Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz reached the quarter-finals of the US Open mixed doubles before being beaten by fourth seeds Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli.

Williams - a 23-time Grand Slam singles champion - returned to tennis in June at the age of 44 and secured her first professional win since 2022 as she and Alcaraz beat Britain's Lloyd Glasspool and partner Erin Routliffe in their opening match.

It was also seven-time major winner Alcaraz's first match back on tour after a wrist injury sidelined the reigning men's singles champion since April. The 22-year-old was born five years after Williams won the 1998 mixed doubles title at Flushing Meadows.

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The dynamic pairing bounced back from a slow start to claim a 5-3 4-1 opening victory over Routliffe and Glasspool, much to the delight of fans inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.

"I never expected to be back on this court," Williams said. "I never thought this would happen."

With their quarter-final match scheduled immediately afterwards, Williams and Alcaraz ultimately ran out of puff as Bencic and Cobolli triumphed 5-4 4-1, the latter then having hailed their opponents pre-match as "the queen of tennis and the king of now."

The question now is whether Williams will seek an encore performance in women's doubles alongside older sister Venus, having already ruled out a repeat of her singles appearance at Wimbledon.

Djokovic and Sabalenka suffer early exit

Top seeds Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka were bounced out of the tournament in the opening match on Arthur Ashe, falling to a 1-4 4-2 10-2 ‌defeat to Britain's Henry Patten and Katerina Siniakova.

Djokovic, a ​24-time Grand Slam singles champion, and four-time major winner Sabalenka made a strong start by ​taking the opening set, but doubles specialists Patten and ‌Siniakova hit back to claim the second before dominating the tiebreak ​to secure a place in the quarter-finals.

Siniakova sealed the upset in style with an ace out wide on match ​point, ending the tournament hopes of the ⁠star-studded pairing.

"It wasn't looking very ⁠good for a while, in this format we play one bad game and all ‌of a sudden the first set's gone," Patten said.

"We knew the same could happen in the second, and we played ‌an amazing tiebreak. Kat acing Novak on match point was great."

The mixed doubles championship is once again being staged in the week before the singles main draw, after organisers revamped ⁠the format last year to attract more ​leading singles players by reducing the field and ​giving the event a standalone slot on the ​calendar.

The revamped format proved a commercial success in its ⁠debut year, drawing sell-out crowds and attracting many of the sport's biggest singles names despite criticism from some doubles specialists, ⁠who argued it marginalised established pairings.

Defending champions dumped out in first round

Italian ​duo Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori went on to ​retain the title by defeating Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud in last year's final, but suffered a first-round exit this year.

Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev beat the defending champions 1-4 4-1 11-9 in the opening round, before clinching a semi-final spot with a 4-1 4-5 10-5 victory over Diana Shnaider and Casper Ruud.

They next face Czech pair Karolína Muchova and Jakub Mensik in one of Wednesday's semi-finals, with Bencic and Cobolli facing husband and wife partnership Gael Monfils and Elina Svitolina in the other after they edged out Patten and Siniakova in the last eight.

The final two follow the two semis on Wednesday night will resemble a regular match, with traditional sets to six games.

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(c) Sky Sports 2026: Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz exit US Open mixed doubles in quarter-finals; top seeds Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka out in first round