Someone, wicked, spoke of a “clown show risk“. Too harsh, but certainly that of Carlos Alcaraz will be a gamble, very media-driven. The Spaniard and Serena Williams will play together in the mixed doubles tournament at the US Open, the last Slam of the season.
Thanks to a wild card, the youngest world No. 1 in the ATP and the most decorated Slam singles champion, ranked No. 1 for 377 weeks, will enhance a draw that already includes another pair of No. 1s, Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic. For Italy, there will be Flavio Cobolli with Belinda Bencic and the two-time defending champions Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori. In mixed doubles, Serena triumphed at Wimbledon and the US Open in 1998, paired with Max Mirnyi. She also reached the final at the 1998 Roland Garros, together with Luis Lobo, and at the 1999 Australian Open, again paired with Mirnyi. She also played with Lleyton Hewitt at the 1998 Australian Open and with Andy Murray at Wimbledon in 2019. Alcaraz has only participated in this discipline at the 2025 US Open with Emma Raducanu. The two were defeated in the first round by Jessica Pegula and Jack Draper.
Above all, however, both Alcaraz and Serena are struggling with still shaky form. The former, because he is returning to Flushing Meadows after 4 months off due to a serious wrist injury. Williams, 45 years old as of September, returned to play a singles match at Wimbledon last June, 4 years after retiring in 2022: defeated by the modest Australian Maya Joint, 24 years her junior.
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In New York, as is known, Jannik Sinner will not be present. The current No. 1 in the ATP rankings, after weeks of uncertainty following examinations and therapies on his right knee, has decided not to take risks and postpone his return to the court. What, from the little information leaked, seemed like a manageable issue turned out to be a problem that called for maximum caution and avoiding the extreme stress of a Slam: also in this case, as with previous injuries, the South Tyrolean chose the path of absolute discretion, naturally fueling fears and doubts about the real extent of his physical impediments.
Thus began a new countdown for the resumption of the journey interrupted by the South Tyrolean after Wimbledon, with a schedule that includes the ATP 500 in Beijing (9/30) and the Masters 1000 in Shanghai (10/7), followed at the end of October by the very rich exhibition Six Kings Slam in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) and in November by the Masters 1000 in Paris and the ATP Finals in Turin. Given Alcaraz’s precedent, everything suggests, however, that the date of Sinner’s return is still uncertain.
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