Serena Williams will play competitive tennis at the US Open for the first time since her September 2022 retirement, partnering with seven-time Grand Slam singles champion Carlos Alcaraz in mixed doubles. The draw announcement landed Friday afternoon; ESPN's programming team had 72 hours advance notice, according to two people familiar with the scheduling.
Williams, 43, owns 23 major singles titles and walked away from the sport with no formal goodbye match after a third-round singles loss at Flushing Meadows 33 months ago. Alcaraz, currently ranked No. 2 in men's singles, has never played US Open mixed doubles. The pairing follows the model Billie Jean King used in the 1970s: a marquee women's champion extending her commercial footprint without the grind of best-of-three singles. Mixed doubles matches are best-of-three sets with a 10-point tiebreak in lieu of a third set, reducing injury exposure.
The broadcast math is straightforward. Williams's 2022 US Open third-round match against Ajla Tomljanović drew 4.6 million viewers on ESPN, the network's largest tennis audience outside a final in nine years. Mixed doubles typically airs on ESPN2 or streaming, but this entry creates prime-time optionality: the tournament can slot Williams-Alcaraz into an Arthur Ashe Stadium night session, anchoring a three-hour broadcast window with predictable tune-in. A person close to the USTA's media strategy said the pairing could justify moving a men's or women's singles quarterfinal to daytime if scheduling conflicts arise, a reversal of traditional Grand Slam hierarchy.
For Williams, the calculus is endorsement refresh without the preparation tax. She has not competed since August 2022 and holds equity stakes in over 80 companies through Serena Ventures, which closed a $111 million fund in early 2024. Appearing at the US Open in a structured, lower-intensity format keeps her in Nike campaign rotation—her lifetime deal reportedly pays $8 million annually—and maintains visibility for her skincare line, Wyn Beauty, which launched 11 months ago and is pursuing a Series A at a $150 million pre-money valuation, per a source familiar.
Alcaraz's participation is brand architecture. His coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, has publicly worried about overexposure; Alcaraz played 26 tournaments in 2024, second-most in the top 10. But mixed doubles requires four to six matches maximum if the pair reaches the final, and those matches occur on off-days from singles. The risk is injury in a format that lacks the preparation rhythms of singles, but the reward is U.S. market penetration. Alcaraz's endorsement portfolio—Nike, Rolex, Louis Vuitton—is European-heavy; a Williams partnership puts him in front of American casual tennis fans who tune in for personalities, not rankings.
The USTA has not confirmed match scheduling, but the mixed doubles draw will be released August 30, with first-round matches beginning August 31 or September 1. Williams-Alcaraz will be seeded or receive a protected draw position to avoid early elimination, a common accommodation for marquee pairings. Ticket resale prices for potential night sessions are already moving: a Vivid Seats spokesperson said Ashe evening inventory for the tournament's second week climbed 18% in average ask price within six hours of the announcement.
Watch whether Williams plays additional mixed doubles events before New York. If she enters Cincinnati or Toronto in the next 10 days, it signals rust management. If she arrives cold, it signals this is a one-time broadcast product, not a competitive comeback.
The takeaway
Williams returns for mixed doubles with Alcaraz, giving ESPN a prime-time scheduling asset and refreshing her endorsement visibility without singles preparation.
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