NEW YORK — Four years ago, nobody could have envisioned this.
Not even Serena Williams.
When Williams suffered a third-round defeat at the 2022 US Open, it was expected to mark the end of the 23-time Grand Slam champion’s prolific career.
Williams had revealed weeks earlier that she planned to “evolve” away from tennis after that year’s tournament at Flushing Meadows. Her three matches there that summer functioned as something of a farewell tour.
It was a bit surreal, then, to see the 44-year-old Williams take the court Tuesday afternoon at Arthur Ashe Stadium alongside Carlos Alcaraz to compete in the mixed doubles tournament at this year’s US Open.
And what a return it was.
Williams and Alcaraz, 23, won a first-round match over doubles specialists Erin Routliffe and Lloyd Glasspool in straight sets before losing in the quarterfinals to Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli.
Despite the ultimate outcome, Williams was all smiles as she delivered a few vintage moments on a stage she dominated for decades.
“I never expected to be back on this court, so it’s just a really cool moment,” Williams said in an on-court interview.
Dressed in matching purple outfits, Williams and Alcaraz — in their first-ever pairing — quickly became the must-see team after entering the mixed doubles event as a wild card.
In front of a rowdy Queens crowd, the superstars surged in their debut to a 5-3, 4-1 victory against Routliffe and Glasspool, despite a slow start.
Not only was it Williams’ first Open match in 1,453 days, but it was Alcaraz’s first time playing in any capacity in more than four months due to a right wrist injury.
After four games, they trailed 3-1.
“I double-faulted on the first point, so I was really, really nervous,” said Alcaraz, a seven-time Grand Slam singles champion, including last year’s Open.
“She made it really easy just to try to enjoy it, to go for it every time.”
Indeed, Williams repeatedly spoke to Alcaraz after points, pepping up her teammate.
They locked in from there, winning seven consecutive games, with Williams rocketing return winners down the stretch of both sets.
Williams and Alcaraz carried that momentum into their second match, taking a 4-3 lead in the first set, but they couldn’t quite finish off Bencic and Cobolli.
Bencic and Cobolli forced a seven-point tiebreak, which they won after a couple of misses by Williams, including one in front of the net.
The second set was less tight, with Bencic and Cobolli winning it 4-1.
“This is such a bonus for us to be out here, and to play with Carlos is honestly so cool,” said Williams, who has won six US Open singles titles. “We’re just having fun.”
Williams never officially retired, but as the years passed, a return to tennis seemed less and less likely.
In December, when reports emerged that Williams had re-entered her sport’s drug-testing pool, Williams adamantly denied she was planning a comeback.
But Williams became eligible for reinstatement in February, and some four months later, she made her grand return in the singles tournament at Wimbledon as a wild card.
Williams lost in the first round at Wimbledon in three sets to 20-year-old Maya Joint, and in the process, she suffered a knee injury.
That ailment continues to hamper Williams, who will not participate in the singles tournament at the US Open, which begins Sunday.
On Tuesday’s broadcast, ESPN’s Patrick McEnroe shared that Williams’ longtime manager, Jill Smoller, told him Williams felt close but that her knee wasn’t quite ready for singles.
Some had thought Williams might receive a wild-card entry for the Open singles tournament, but the final wild card instead went to another American in Sofia Kenin.
Still, Williams more than held her own in Tuesday’s doubles setting, just as she did last week during a Round of 32 loss in the doubles tournament at the Cincinnati Open with her sister, Venus Williams.
It made for a very memorable US Open return.
“I never thought this would happen,” Williams said.
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