doubles

A large-scale oil spill, believed to be from a tanker struck by the US military, doubled in size between Wednesday and Thursday, endangering two protected areas off Oman and Iran, said Nina Noelle of Greenpeace Germany.

The tanker RIESCO was one of four attacked Tuesday in the Gulf of Oman. A fifth was destroyed in the Strait of Hormuz off Iran’s Kharg island.

The visible area of pollution measured about 400 square kilometers (154 square miles) on Thursday, Noelle said. Satellite images reviewed by The Associated Press showed the spill stretching almost 70 kilometers (43 miles) long.

The spill is located between the Musandam protected area on the Omani side, which includes one of the region’s most important seabird breeding islands.

On the Iranian side is the Hara-e Roud-e Gaz Protected Area in Hormozgan province that includes mangrove forests.

“The current situation in the Strait of Hormuz, together with our experience of oil spills since the beginning of the war, unfortunately suggests that an effective response is unlikely,” Noelle said.

Reunited three-time US Open men’s doubles champions Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram knocked out last year’s winners Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos to reach the semi-finals.

Britain’s Salisbury won the title at at Flushing Meadows in New York alongside American Ram in 2021, 2022 and 2023, but they split in 2024 before teaming up again this year.

They won 6-4 6-4 against the second seeds and will face 2024 runners-up Kevin Krawietz and Tim Putz from Germany on Thursday.

In the other half of the draw, Briton Henry Patten and Finn Harri Heliovaara saved three match points on their way to a 6-7 (7-9) 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 triumph over seventh seeds Manuel Guinard and Guido Andreozzi.

Wimbledon champions and top seeds Patten and Heliovaara spurned four set points in the opening set and had to stave off match points in the second.

They will meet Briton Neal Skupski and American Christian Harrison, who beat Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori 6-3 6-2 in the last quarter-final.

In the women’s doubles, top seeds Katerina Siniakova, from the Czech Republic, and American Taylor Townsend are one victory away from lifting all four Grand Slam titles together after winning 6-0 7-6 (10-8) against Diana Shnaider and Elise Mertens.

They will contest Friday’s final with Americans Robin Montgomery and Ashlyn Krueger, who saved three match points and came from 8-2 down in the match tie-break to beat second seeds Luisa Stefani and Gabriella Dabrowski 4-6 6-4 7-6 (10-8).

For once, the 20,000-odd fans on a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium sat quietly engrossed during points.

The sight of the Williams sisters back on court together at the US Open – possibly for the final time – commanded ultimate respect from a chatty crowd known to let their attention wander.

The siblings changed the face of the sport when they emerged as precocious teenagers in the 1990s, going on to dominate the sport with a combined 30 Grand Slam singles titles and 14 doubles victories as a pair.

Three decades later, the sport remains captivated by them.

Serena, a 23-time Grand Slam women’s singles champion, coming out of retirement this summer sparked excitement among those who saw her in their prime and those too young to have witnessed it.

Seven-time major winner Venus has never “evolved away” from the sport – the words chosen by her younger sister when she last played in 2022 – but instead continued her career with the help of sporadic wildcards.

While that has proved controversial in some quarters, there were few objections about the sisters being invited to play once again at Flushing Meadows.

Their planned return at Wimbledon was scuppered by the knee injury which Serena suffered in her singles match there – ironically a defeat by 20-year-old Joint – before they finally reunited at the WTA event in Cincinnati.

The comeback ended in a match tie-break defeat by Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk and her American partner Peyton Stearns, with the same fate befalling them in New York.

When the Williams sisters last played on Ashe four years ago, they suffered a straight-set defeat by Czech pair Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova in the first round.

It looked like being a similar outcome as they meekly surrendered the first set against Chan and Joint, then batted off four break points in the fifth and seventh games of the second set.

But once Serena upped her level to match her impressive sister, they managed to switch the momentum back in their favour and level the match.

An absorbing contest featuring some sensational points saw the Americans fight back again in the decider, only to falter from a commanding lead in the tie-break.

Overall it was a more than credible performance from the veteran pair. Their solid groundstrokes, sharp movement and never-say-die attitude caused problems for their opponents, who deserve huge credit for staying focused in a partisan environment.

“The atmosphere was surreal,” said Joint.

“It was something we’ve never experienced before, and to play against such legends of the game was super special.”

Enjoy it – and do what Serena Williams tells you to.

That was how Carlos Alcaraz settled back into competitive action at the US Open, partnering the American great as she returned to her home slam after a four-year absence.

The tournament’s revamped mixed doubles format has attracted criticism for favouring the allure of the sport’s top singles stars at the expense of established doubles players.

But the crowds turned out and produced a terrific atmosphere for the tournament’s headline act, with about 15,000 people packed inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.

All four doubles specialist pairings lost to a team of singles players on Tuesday, while Alcaraz and Williams fell in the quarter-finals.

Seven-time major winner Alcaraz was playing his first competitive match since April after injuring his wrist, while 23-time Grand Slam champion Williams was competing in New York for the first time since she “evolved away” from tennis in 2022.

The pair were greeted by huge cheers and were roared on throughout their opening 5-3 4-1 win against Great Britain’s Lloyd Glasspool and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe.

The 44-year-old Williams won the US Open mixed doubles title in its original format alongside Max Mirnyi in 1998 – five years before Alcaraz was born.

Almost 30 years later, Williams still had the competitive desire. She and Alcaraz enjoyed the occasion, playing with smiles on their faces and roaring each other on after winning a point.

Interviewed during a change of ends, Alcaraz said: “I’m playing next to the one and only Serena Williams, so what else can I do? Just enjoy and try to do the things she told me to do.”

Their partnership improved rapidly in their first match as they won eight of the final nine games to seal victory.

However, they were denied a place in Wednesday’s semi-finals by Italy’s world number six Flavio Cobolli and Swiss team-mate Belinda Bencic, who won 5-4 (7-4) 4-1.

The 23-time Grand Slam champion will not be playing singles, but could team up with her older sister Venus for doubles.

Serena Williams will team up with Carlos Alcaraz to create a powerhouse mixed doubles pair on her return to the US Open.

The US Tennis Association announced on Saturday that Williams and Alcaraz had been given a wild card into the tournament. The mixed doubles main draw begins on Tuesday, with the winning team sharing $1 million.

It will be Williams’s first time playing at the US Open since 2022. The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion returned to tennis this summer.

“Let’s gooooo!” Alcaraz posted on X, with a fire emoji and tagging Williams.

Williams is not planning to play singles in New York. The USTA had been holding one women’s wild card, presumably in case Williams wanted it. However, the tournament announced on Saturday that it had been given to American Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion.

Williams played singles at Wimbledon but sustained a knee injury in her first-round loss. She played doubles with older sister Venus at the Cincinnati Open, and they could still opt to play together at the US Open.

Alcaraz announced this week he would return to defend his US Open singles title after being sidelined since April with a right wrist injury.

Serena Williams won a mixed doubles title at the US Open even before winning any of her six singles titles there. She teamed for the 1998 championship with Max Mirnyi, who now works with top-ranked woman Aryna Sabalenka.

The mixed doubles tournament is far different now, as the USTA revamped it last year to make it a two-day, 16-team event it hoped would draw top singles players.

Few are bigger than Williams and Alcaraz, the two-time US Open men’s champion who is ranked number two.

The USTA also announced a number of updates to the field after some players withdrew from the competition.

Americans Jessica Pegula and Taylor Fritz will team up, after their previous partners, Jack Draper and Elena Rybakina, pulled out with injuries. The teams of Emma Navarro and Tommy Paul, along with Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik, were given the remaining two wild cards into the main draw.

Diana Shnaider remains in the field and will be given a chance to find a new partner after Daniil Medvedev withdrew.

US Open mixed doubles teams: Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic, Pegula and Fritz, Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud, Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli, Amanda Anisimova and Learner Tien, two-time defending champions Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, Alex Eala and Felix Auger-Aliassime, Leylah Fernandez and Frances Tiafoe, Taylor Townsend and Alexander Zverev, Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils, Williams and Alcaraz, Muchova and Mensik, and Navarro and Paul.

The remaining two spots will be determined through an eight-team qualifying tournament on Monday.

The USTA gave wild cards to the teams of Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev, and Peyton Stearns and Christian Harrison, to be part of that field.

It is otherwise largely made up of the traditional doubles specialists who lost out on the chance to play in the US Open last year, with direct entry based on the players’ combined singles ranking.

Published on
20/08/2026 – 11:18 GMT+2

The US national debt now stands at a record $40 trillion (€34.4tn), while the Treasury has responded to the bond market pressure by pledging to buy back far more of its own older securities.

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Washington’s two announcements landed on the same day and represent two symptoms of the same underlying strain: a government borrowing at a record pace just as buyers of its longest-dated debt are demanding higher returns to keep lending.

Buybacks work like a targeted repurchase. Rather than printing new money, the US Treasury uses cash it already has to repurchase older, harder-to-trade bonds from investors, improving liquidity without changing the total stock of debt.

From 9 September, the maximum size of each buyback operation in the 10-to-20-year and 20-to-30-year markets will at least double, from $2 billion (€1.7bn) to $4 billion (€3.4bn), running through the next quarterly refunding on 4 November.

The US Treasury said the change reflects “strong sponsorship from market participants” in that part of the curve, but the timing of the decision was no accident.

The 30-year yield had climbed on Tuesday to its highest level since 2007 amid what analysts called a buyers’ strike stretching back to late June, aggravated by a swelling supply of corporate debt tied to AI data centre spending.

Yields duly fell after Wednesday’s announcement, with the 30-year dropping roughly 9 basis points and the 10-year around 6, and Wall Street rallied.

Asked whether Americans should worry about the volatility, US President Donald Trump simply said: “No, I don’t think so.”

However, not everyone is convinced the fix goes deep enough.

The size of the increase is modest next to the $32 trillion (€27.5tn) Treasury market it is meant to steady, and notable economist Mohamed El-Erian suggested the outsized market reaction reflected hopes of broader intervention to come rather than the direct effect of the buybacks themselves.

Thomas Simons, chief US economist at Jefferies, said the announcement broke with Treasury’s usual pattern of steady, well-flagged communication about its borrowing plans and felt “shot from the hip”.

How the US national debt reached $40 trillion

The debt figure, confirmed by US Treasury data covering Tuesday, splits into $32.27 trillion (€27.75tn) held by the public and $7.78 trillion (€6.69tn) owed between government accounts.

It arrived roughly two fiscal years earlier than expected as the US Congressional Budget Office projected in May 2023 that the threshold would not be crossed until 2028, and it came remarkably fast even by recent standards: $39 trillion (€33.5tn) was reached only in March, $38 trillion (€32.6tn) the previous October.

The US government borrowed $1.8 trillion (€1.5tn) in the first ten months of this fiscal year alone, already more than it borrowed in the whole of the last one, as spending on Social Security, Medicare, defence and interest payments continues to outrun revenue.

“The national debt is not just a number on the government’s balance sheet,” said David Young, president of the Conference Board’s CEO Center, noting it shapes the financial decisions Americans make daily.

The two stories feed each other.

A bigger debt load makes investors warier about lending long-term, which pushes yields higher. In turn, higher yields then raise the government’s own interest bill, adding further to the debt the US Treasury has to finance next.

Wednesday’s buyback expansion may ease the immediate pressure, but it does nothing to slow the borrowing driving it.