Serena Williams teams up with Carlos Alcaraz in US Open mixed doubles

Published On 23 Aug 202623 Aug 2026.

Key points

• After their previous partners, Jack Draper and Elena Rybakina, pulled out with injuries, americans Jessica Pegula and Taylor Fritz will team up.
• The USTA offered wild cards to the teams of Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev, and Peyton Stearns and Christian Harrison, to be part of that field.
• It will be Williams's first time playing at the US Open since 2022.
• Serena Williams will team up with Carlos Alcaraz to create a powerhouse mixed doubles pair on her return to the US Open.
• The US Tennis Association confirmed on Saturday that Williams and Alcaraz had been given a wild card into the tournament.

In practice, the US Tennis Association confirmed on Saturday that Williams and Alcaraz had been given a wild card into the tournament. The mixed doubles main draw begins on Tuesday, with the winning team sharing $1 million.

It will be Williams's first time playing at the US Open since 2022. The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion returned to tennis this summer.

"Let's gooooo!" Alcaraz posted on X, with a fire emoji and tagging Williams.

Williams is not planning to play singles in New York. The USTA had been holding one women's wild card, presumably in case Williams wanted it. Nevertheless, the tournament unveiled on Saturday that it had been given to American Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion.

Williams played singles at Wimbledon but sustained a knee injury in her first-round loss. She played doubles with older sister Venus at the Cincinnati Open, and they could still opt to play together at the US Open.

Alcaraz confirmed this week he would return to defend his US Open singles title after being sidelined since April with a right wrist injury.

Serena Williams won a mixed doubles title at the US Open even before winning any of her six singles titles there. She teamed for the 1998 championship with Max Mirnyi. This person now works with top-ranked woman Aryna Sabalenka.

As the USTA revamped it last year to create it a two-day, 16-team event it hoped would draw top singles players, the mixed doubles tournament is far different now.

Few are bigger than Williams and Alcaraz, the two-time US Open men's champion who is ranked number two.

In practice, the USTA additionally unveiled a number of updates to the field after some players withdrew from the competition.

After their previous partners, Jack Draper and Elena Rybakina, pulled out with injuries, americans Jessica Pegula and Taylor Fritz will team up. The teams of Emma Navarro and Tommy Paul, along with Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik, were given the remaining two wild cards into the main draw.

Diana Shnaider remains in the field and will be given a chance to find a new partner after Daniil Medvedev withdrew.

US Open mixed doubles teams: Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic, Pegula and Fritz, Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud, Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli, Amanda Anisimova and Learner Tien, two-time defending champions Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, Alex Eala and Felix Auger-Aliassime, Leylah Fernandez and Frances Tiafoe, Taylor Townsend and Alexander Zverev, Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils, Williams and Alcaraz, Muchova and Mensik, and Navarro and Paul.

In practice, the remaining two spots will be determined through an eight-team qualifying tournament on Monday.

For context, the USTA offered wild cards to the teams of Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev, and Peyton Stearns and Christian Harrison, to be part of that field.

It is otherwise largely created up of the traditional doubles specialists who lost out on the chance to play in the US Open last year, with direct entry based on the players' combined singles ranking.

For now, serena Williams teams up with Carlos Alcaraz in US Open mixed doubles remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.