Erin Routliffe loses to tennis greats at US Open
New Zealand tennis pro Erin Routliffe and England's Lloyd Glasspool have been beaten in the main draw of US Open Mixed Doubles doubles by the star pair of Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz in New York.
American Williams, a 23-Grand Slam singles winner and Spaniard Alcaraz (seven Grand Slam titles) won 5-3 4-1 in their opening round match at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
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Routliffe and Glasspool had earlier won two qualifying matches the previous to make it through to the main draw.
After an initial nervous start Williams aged 44 and Alcaraz, who is retuirning from injury eventually found their targets to take the first set, 5-3.
They pushed out to a 3-0 lead in the second set, and while Routliffe and Glasspool pulled back a game the crowd favourites closed the match in the next game.
Routliffe has a current WTA doubles ranking of 14 and has 13 career doubles titles to her credit, including the US Open in 2023 and 25.
Earlier in the day, top seeds Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka lost in three sets to Henry Patten and Katerina Siniakova in the shortened format of the game.
