Alcaraz, Serena Williams get US Open mixed doubles wild card
Carlos Alcaraz and Serena Williams have been given a wild card into the 2026 US Open mixed doubles, marking Williams’ first appearance at Flushing Meadows since her 2022 retirement. Alcaraz has separately confirmed his singles return to defend his title, while Williams’ own singles wild card remains undecided. The mixed doubles event runs August 24-26.
Carlos Alcaraz and Serena Williams, US Open | © Cincinnati Open / PsNews / Tennis Majors
Carlos Alcaraz and Serena Williams have been awarded a wild card into the US Open mixed doubles, the USTA announced on Saturday, pairing the Spaniard with the 23-time Grand Slam champion for what will be her first appearance at Flushing Meadows since her retirement in 2022.
The pairing comes in the same week Alcaraz confirmed his return to the US Open singles draw, ending a four-month absence caused by a right wrist injury, as he prepares to defend the title he won last year.
Williams’ own singles status remains unresolved: the final women’s singles wild card is still unassigned, and she has been described as noncommittal on her participation as qualifying begins Monday in New York, even as the rest of the wild-card field – Venus Williams, Sloane Stephens, Gael Monfils and Alexei Popyrin among them – has already been confirmed.
“The US Open as well”
Williams has already featured in doubles twice this month. She and sister Venus withdrew from their planned Wimbledon doubles match because of a knee injury Serena picked up during her singles run there, her first at a major in nearly four years, before the sisters reunited in the Cincinnati doubles draw, where they lost in the first round to Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns.
Her coach, Rennae Stubbs, said after Wimbledon that Williams’ “intention is to keep playing; the US Open as well.”
The US Open mixed doubles event, a standalone exhibition-style competition staged ahead of the main draw, runs from August 24-26, with the singles championships beginning August 30.
