Routliffe faces Williams, Alcaraz US Open Mixed Doubles
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New Zealand tennis player Erin Routliffe has made it through the qualifying draw at the US Open’s star-studded Mixed Doubles event drawing two of the sport's biggest names in the first round.
Routliffe and British partner Lloyd Glasspool will face Carlos Alcaraz and Serena Williams in the main draw.
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Alcaraz, already a seven-time Grand Slam singles champion, became the youngest man ever to complete the career Grand Slam when he won the Australian Open this year aged 22. However, a wrist injury has kept him off the court since April, meaning this will be his first competitive match back since the injury.
Williams, one of the most recognisable athletes on the planet, announced her comeback ahead of the grass-court season, with the 44-year-old having already faced Routliffe twice in doubles this year.
The revamped US Open mixed doubles competition is different from a standard Grand Slam tournament. Only 16 teams will compete in the main draw, with most of the pairings based on singles rankings instead of doubles. The scoring is also shorter, with the tournament using the Fast4 format, where players need to win just four games instead of six to win a set, with a 10-point tiebreak played at one set all.
The US$1 million prize for the winning team gives the tournament a different flavour as well.
Routliffe and Glasspool had to battle past fellow doubles professionals Luisa Stefani and Neal Skupski in their first qualifying match, winning 4-1, 3-5, 10-7.
With very little turnaround time, they were due back on court to play their second qualifying match of the day, this time against Kristina Mladenovic and Marcelo Arevalo, with Arevalo currently the sixth-highest-ranked men’s doubles player in the world. Routliffe and Glasspool won another tight contest, 5-4(4), 2-4, 11-9.
The Mixed Doubles draw features tennis legend Novak Djokovic with Aryna Sabalenka as well as Americans Jessica Pegula and Taylor Fritz among others.
Routliffe is a two-tijme Women's Doubles winner at the US Open - 2023 and 25 with Canadian Gaby Dabrowski.
