Serena Williams has made a triumphant return to the US Open, winning in mixed doubles alongside Carlos Alcaraz, who shook off the rust from missing four months with a wrist injury to keep pace with his illustrious playing partner.

Williams and Alcaraz rebounded from a slow start to defeat New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and Briton Lloyd Glasspool 5-3 4-1 in the first round on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST), but only after another superstar partnership between world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka and all-time great Novak Djokovic got knocked out.

Fans in the Arthur Ashe Stadium rose to salute Williams as she played her first match at the US Open match since 2022, when she was beaten in the singles by Australian Ajla Tomljanovic, while Alcaraz got back to action for the first time in any match since April 14.

With a white sleeve on his injured right arm, Alcaraz’s timing, movements and serve looked off as fans chanted, “Let’s go, Serena, let’s go!” The decorated star of the show then delivered.

Williams, back at age 44, carried Alcaraz for much of the first set, winning 15 points to his nine to rally back and take the set.

“I’m playing with the one and only Serena Williams,” Alcaraz said in a mid-match interview.

“Just enjoying. Trying to do the things she taught me to do.”

Alcaraz eventually found his groove, before the pair cruised in the second, setting up a quarter-final against Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli – which they subsequently lost 5-4 (7-4) 4-1.

“It’s always such an amazing place to be here,” Williams said.

“I never expected to be back on this court, so it was just a really cool moment. I never thought this would happen.”

 

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The winners advanced to the semi-finals on Wednesday (Thursday AEST), with the champions getting $US1 million ($A1.4 million) in the second year of the new mixed doubles format that’s designed to attract top players.

Earlier, Sabalenka and Djokovic were beaten 1-4 4-2 (10-2) by doubles specialists Katerina Siniakova and Henry Patten, who brought the house down when the Czech star Siniakova ended the match by hitting an ace past the great Djokovic.

“Kat acing Novak on match point was pretty fun,” Briton Patten laughed.

Married pair Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils then edged Siniakova and Patten 5-4 (8-6) 4-5 (3-5) 10-8 in the quarters.

“Happy wife, happy life,” Monfils, who’ll turn 40 on September 1, beamed in their post-match interview after a kiss and hug on the court.

The tournament now has a scoring format that guarantees quick matches that shouldn’t tax the players too much, with tiebreakers at 4-4 and a 10-point breaker instead of a third set.

Tomic falls in US Open qualifier

Meanwhile, Australian Bernard Tomic’s seemingly unending quest to fight his way back into another grand slam main draw fell short once again at Flushing Meadows.

The last time the 33-year-old managed to battle into a main draw of a major was at his home Australian Open in 2021, but in the five years since, he’s entered 10 more qualifying events in the slams and failed to negotiate his way through any.

Alas for the former teenage wonder boy who got to No.17 in the world a decade ago, that drought continued on Tuesday afternoon (Wednesday AEST) in New York  as he fought back in his first-round match against South African Lloyd Harris only to be outplayed in the final stanza.

No-one can possibly fault the effort of world No.179 Tomic, who was once perceived as being a talented but undisciplined figure who didn’t really care enough about the sport, as he’s since battled on in the lower reaches of the game around the world, tirelessly seeking another day in the sun.

But Harris, a former world No.31 himself who’s still dangerous even if his ranking’s fallen to 139, just had a little too much for the Gold Coast veteran, who staged a second-set fightback before going down 6-2 5-7 6-2.

It was the same story for a couple of other Australians in first-round action, as teenager Emerson Jones fought valiantly to peg back Dutch world No.164 Suzan Lamens in a tight second-set tiebreak, only to succumb in the decider 7-5 6-7 (7-9) 6-2 after two hours 25 minutes.

With another veteran Alex Bolt losing 7-6 (7-3) 7-5 to Spain’s Pablo Llamas Ruiz, it meant that Australia were still looking for their first winner of the week in qualifying after James McCabe’s loss on the opening Monday.

The comforting news was that at least one Aussie was guaranteed a place in the second round of qualifying as Storm Hunter took on her friend Maddison Inglis later in the day.

–with AAP