RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Enjoy it - and do what Serena Williams tells you to.
That was how Carlos Alcaraz settled back into competitive action at the US Open, partnering the American great as she returned to her home slam after a four-year absence.
The tournament's revamped mixed doubles format has attracted criticism for favouring the allure of the sport's top singles stars at the expense of established doubles players.
But the crowds turned out and produced a terrific atmosphere for the tournament's headline act, with about 15,000 people packed inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.
All four doubles specialist pairings lost to a team of singles players on Tuesday, while Alcaraz and Williams fell in the quarter-finals.
Seven-time major winner Alcaraz was playing his first competitive match since April after injuring his wrist, while 23-time Grand Slam champion Williams was competing in New York for the first time since she "evolved away" from tennis in 2022.
The pair were greeted by huge cheers and were roared on throughout their opening 5-3 4-1 win against Great Britain's Lloyd Glasspool and New Zealand's Erin Routliffe.
The 44-year-old Williams won the US Open mixed doubles title in its original format alongside Max Mirnyi in 1998 - five years before Alcaraz was born.
Almost 30 years later, Williams still had the competitive desire. She and Alcaraz enjoyed the occasion, playing with smiles on their faces and roaring each other on after winning a point.
Interviewed during a change of ends, Alcaraz said: "I'm playing next to the one and only Serena Williams, so what else can I do? Just enjoy and try to do the things she told me to do."
Their partnership improved rapidly in their first match as they won eight of the final nine games to seal victory.
However, they were denied a place in Wednesday's semi-finals by Italy's world number six Flavio Cobolli and Swiss team-mate Belinda Bencic, who won 5-4 (7-4) 4-1.
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The Spaniard admitted he felt nervous before stepping out on the court - in part due to partnering six-time US Open women's singles champion Williams.
"I think everyone could see I was really nervous, I double-faulted on the first point," Alcaraz said after their opening win.
"I was out for almost five months and I almost forgot how it feels stepping out on the court once again.
"It [took] just a couple of games [to settle] and she made it very easy for me to enjoy it and try to go for it."
For Williams, a return to the Arthur Ashe Stadium was something she did not believe would come around again.
"It's always amazing to be here. I never expected to be back on this court," Williams said.
"It was just a really cool moment. I never thought this would happen."
The controversial revamped mixed doubles format, introduced last year, pits established doubles players against some of the sport's biggest singles stars.
The tournament takes place the week before the singles draw gets under way and allows direct entry into the main draw for top-ranked singles players and wildcards.
Established doubles players such as Britons Glasspool and Henry Patten had to come through two qualifying rounds on Monday.
Top-ranked players Patten and Katerina Siniakova advanced to the quarter-finals before losing to husband-and-wife duo Gael Monfils and Elina Svitolina.
Discussing their dynamic, with a semi-final against Cobolli and Bencic to come, Frenchman Monfils said: "I'm a big fan of her game and mentality. Sometimes I think she's ice and I'm the fire.
"We needed to the find the balance. We did today."
The other semi-final will see Russians Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev face Czech pair Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik.
It was not all plain sailing for the leading singles players, with men's 24-time major winner Novak Djokovic and women's world number one Aryna Sabalenka suffering an early exit at the hands of Patten and Siniakova.
Tennis correspondent Sabalenka and Djokovic lasted just 49 minutes, but this was otherwise a day where the singles stars edged out the doubles specialists.
With none of the four doubles pairs making it to the last four, the USTA has the sort of semi-final line up it envisaged when deciding to reinvent the mixed doubles 12 months ago.
Sabalenka and Djokovic turned out to be a very brief experiment. The other marquee pairing of Williams and Alcaraz lasted longer, with Williams in particular catching the eye in their first round win.
But with Alcaraz looking increasingly rusty in the quarter-final, Cobolli and Bencic won convincingly.
The Spaniard was wearing a compression sleeve on his right arm, and the skin fade of earlier in the year has been replaced by a mop of black hair.
This was useful court time for him, but did not really tell us anything about his chances of remaining in New York for the singles final in just under three weeks time.
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