Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz make their return to tennis in an all-star pairing at the US Open mixed doubles tournament.
23-time grand slam champion Williams is competing in New York four years after the final competitive singles match of her career – or at least, the first phase of her career – before she began “evolving away” from the sport.
But the 44-year-old is back in action alongside Spaniard Alcaraz, who has not played in four months due to a troublesome wrist injury, but makes his return to grand slam action in order to defend his singles title at Flushing Meadows.
Elsewhere in the high-profile but controversial mixed doubles event, which is in its second year after a major revamp, world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka and 24-time grand slam champion Novak Djokovic are the top seeds, with the all-American pairing of Jessica Pegula and Taylor Fritz the second seeds.
Follow all the action with our liveblog below:
GAME, SET AND MATCH! Sabalenka/Djokovic 4-1, 2-4, 2-10 Siniakova/Patten
Patten was rock-solid throughout there and although Siniakova struggled on serve early on she was utterly unstoppable for the last 20 minutes.
Henry Patten says: “It wasn’t looking very good for a while, in this format we play one bad game and all of a sudden the first set’s gone. We knew the same could happen in the second, and we played an amazing tiebreak. Kat acing Novak on match point was great.”
GAME, SET AND MATCH! Sabalenka/Djokovic 4-1, 2-4, 2-10 Siniakova/Patten
Match point Patten and Siniakova, who are on an absolute roll here…
They lead 9-2 but it’s on the Czech’s serve… what a time to bring out an ace!!!
An ace out wide seals the deal and dumps the No 1 seeds out of the tournament.
TIE-BREAK! Sabalenka/Djokovic 4-1, 2-4 Siniakova/Patten*
Sabalenka double faults for 5-2, Siniakova extends the gap with a tidy overhead smash… the qualifiers have won 15 of the last 20 points.
Make that 16 of 21, and it’s the Czech again with a lovely volley. 7-2.
TIE-BREAK! Sabalenka/Djokovic 4-1, 2-4 Siniakova/Patten*
To a 10-point tie-break we go! Patten fires in a venomous serve to kick things off, but Djokovic and Sabalenka hang tough in the next rally and the Serb slams away a volley for 1-1.
A rare double fault for Djokovic, though, and he can’t deal with a loopy Siniakova serve.
Sabalenka stumbles over an awkward ball that lands at her feet and the doubles specialists lead 4-1.
GAME AND SECOND SET! Sabalenka/Djokovic 4-1, 2-4 Siniakova/Patten*
Djokovic falls 0-30 down on serve but Sabalenka rescues a point with a lovely net volley into the open court.
Siniakova plants the ball at Sabalenka’s feet for set point… and the Czech whacks a blistering winner cross-court to seal it!
*Sabalenka/Djokovic 4-1, 2-3 Siniakova/Patten
Patten gets the better of Djokovic with the Serb pinned at the baseline to race to 40-15… and Sabalenka nets on the next point. Siniakova and Patten lead.
BREAK BACK! Sabalenka/Djokovic 4-1, 2-2 Siniakova/Patten*
Back on serve in this one…
BREAK! *Sabalenka/Djokovic 4-1, 2-1 Siniakova/Patten
Siniakova continues to struggle on serve – it’s essentially been her only weakness in an otherwise superb doubles career – and despite scrapping to deuce she’s broken.
Sabalenka/Djokovic 4-1, 1-1 Siniakova/Patten*
Patten and Siniakova fight back in this game but the Briton skies an awkward volley at 40-30 and we remain on serve.
*Sabalenka/Djokovic 4-1, 0-1 Siniakova/Patten
Patten whacks down an ace before Sabalenka goes wide on return. The top seeds are smiling and joking in between points, Djokovic in particular seems to be enjoying himself.
Patten and Siniakova play a series of angled volleys which look effortless and one from the Brit seals the opening game of this set.
