Williams

Mark Williams pulled off a superb fightback to beat Shaun Murphy and book a spot in Sunday’s English Open final, where he will face Ali Carter.

Murphy, who had claimed a final-frame victory over Judd Trump in the quarter-finals, charged into a 5-1 lead over Williams on Saturday.

But this time it was the world number seven who was denied as Welshman Williams claimed five straight frames to snatch a 6-5 win.

Murphy looked set to clinch victory in the 10th frame with a break of 51 but handed Williams a lifeline and the world number nine took full advantage.

The 51-year-old made 65 to level things up and again prevailed in the decider, with a break of 69 completing the three-time world champion’s remarkable comeback.

Williams and Carter will now battle it out for their first English Open title at the Brentwood Centre in Essex.

In the first semi-final, Carter reeled off five frames in a row to claim a 6-2 win over China’s Ding Junhui, producing a highest break of 119.

The 47-year-old from Essex started the week 25th in the world rankings and will return to the elite top 16 if he beats Williams.

“To get in the top 16 at my ripe old age of 47 wouldn’t be too bad,” said Carter.

“There is a lot to play for tomorrow, but I’m going to be in there fighting.

“I’m still competing with the best players in the world and it is a feather in my cap.”

World champion Wu Yize fell in the third round of the English Open as Liam Davies scored an eye-catching 4-1 victory in Brentwood.

Welsh prospect Davies, 20, opened up a 3-0 lead on his way to the first ranking event quarter-final of his career, helped by a break of 105 in the second frame, then completed his victory as China’s Wu struggled to find his dynamic best form.

Tantalisingly, Davies will face compatriot Mark Williams, the three-time world champion, in the last eight on Friday evening.

Williams, still a major force on the baize at the age of 51, had breaks of 76, 103 and 63 in a late-night 4-1 victory over England’s Barry Hawkins.

Mark Selby, who was runner-up at last week’s British Open and won the China Open in August, had his hopes of reaching another final ended by a 4-3 defeat against fellow former world champion Kyren Wilson.

Selby led 2-0 in the all-English tussle after an early break of 112 but then lost the next three frames. He dragged himself level, but Wilson trebled in the yellow to effectively make sure of victory in the decider.

England’s Judd Trump, newly deposed as world number one, edged a tense decider against Scot Anthony McGill to take a 4-3 victory.

Trump will face a quarter-final against Shaun Murphy who was taken the distance after midnight by Pang Junxu before racing through the deciding frame with a 103 break.

Ali Carter had a highest break of 75 as he completed a 4-2 win over Gong Chenzhi, Zhou Yuelong made a 141 in his 4-2 victory over Chinese compatriot Yuan Sijun, and Ding Junhui beat Joe O’Connor 4-1.

Last month, former Wales captain Jonathan Davies called for the WRU board to step down.

Businesswoman Hayley Parsons had already called for them to stand down before Davies did the same, while former Principality Building Society chief operating officer Rob Regan has offered to oversee an interim board.

In a statement, the WRU board did not directly address the calls for its members to resign but stated “the kinds of personal insults and attacks that have become far too commonplace are unacceptable”.

The board also doubled down on its commitment to cut the number of professional teams from four to three by 2028, with WRU-owned Cardiff and privately-backed Dragons set to be given licences.

That announcement has plunged the futures of Scarlets and Ospreys into doubt, with the west licence either being awarded to the Llanelli-based side or their Swansea-based rivals.

Asked whether he still had faith in those running the game in Wales, Williams, who coaches in west Wales, said: “No, I don’t have much faith, to be honest with you.”

“I think we’re still none the wiser.

“I think they just took a little break in deciding what was going to happen, but knowing deep down in their hearts that they wanted it to be three regions.

“We as coaches know the uncertainty of who’s going to remain as a region next year and that is very difficult.

“But what we are trying to do and what we do need is a bit more support in the pathway side of the rugby.

“We talk about the regions, we talk about the national team, but where do they think these players come from?

“I can answer that for you straight away. That is schools and colleges.”

In its response the WRU stated: “The schools game in Wales is an integral part of our future strategy and we already provide significant funding and support in this area.

“After restructuring our community rugby department in 2025 we are now able to provide dedicated support to all clubs and schools throughout the country.

“We fund and run a number of competitions for schools including those which culminate in National Finals days held at either Principality Stadium or Rodney Parade each year.”

Defending singles champions Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka have sailed into the last 16 of the US Open as tennis icons Serena and Venus Williams suffered an agonising defeat on their long-awaited return to Grand Slam doubles.

Alcaraz, coming off a four-month injury absence, beat China’s Wu Yibing 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 on Friday to book his place in the fourth round, while Sabalenka was similarly dominant in a 6-3, 6-4 defeat of Kamilla Rakhimova.

Alcaraz will face 20th-seeded American Tommy Paul for a place in the quarterfinals after Paul beat 15th-seeded Alexander Bublik 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (4/7), 6-1, 6-3.

“The way he plays is unbelievable, the rhythm he has on every shot – forehand, backhand,” Alcaraz said of Wu. “His balls skid a lot on the court and, for me, it’s really difficult to control sometimes.

“But I think I stayed there. I played aggressive. I played smart in the toughest moments.”

Wu recovered an early break in each of the first two sets, but Alcaraz pocketed both with breaks in the final games, and after saving a pair of break points in the first game of the third, the Spaniard rolled home.

“I think my level is really good,” he said. “I’ve got into the rhythm of the competition. I’m getting there.”

World number one Sabalenka did not face a break point in her dismissal of Rakhimova, firing 29 winners with 10 aces.

The numbers did not tell the whole tale of a match that saw 92nd-ranked Rakhimova challenge Sabalenka in a second-set slugfest.

Sabalenka was also unimpressed by the pervasive smell of marijuana – an increasingly common issue at the US Open – wafting down from the stands during her match.

“It’s a bit tricky to handle that smell while you’re trying to compete at your best,” said Sabalenka, who at one point complained to the umpire about the issue.

Sabalenka, who must repeat as champion to have a chance of remaining number one, next faces Taylor Townsend, the 96th-ranked American who beat 15th-seeded Russian Diana Shnaider 6-2, 6-7 (3/7), 6-3.

Williams sisters lose thriller

With Alcaraz and Sabalenka among the early starters, all eyes on the evening session were on the Williams sisters, partnering in a Grand Slam doubles event for the first time since 2022.

The duo returned to the US Open stage comes after 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena came out of a four-year retirement to play at Wimbledon.

But the most famous sister act in tennis – who won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles together along with three Olympic gold medals – were beaten 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (10/7) by 14th seeds Chan Hao-ching of Taiwan and Australia’s Maya Joint in a marathon three-hour battle.

The Williams duo had shown flashes of their brilliant best after recovering from losing the first set to level the match after taking the second set on a tie-break.

Momentum and a raucous New York crowd appeared to be carrying them towards victory after they sprinted into a 5-0 lead in the third-set tie-break. But Chan and Joint fought back superbly to erase the deficit before clinching victory.

Pegula through, Muchova upset

In other singles action on Friday, third-seeded American Jessica Pegula, one of the players with a chance to knock Sabalenka off her No 1 perch, mounted a desperate fightback to beat Canadian Leylah Fernandez 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 in a battle of former finalists.

Elsewhere, Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk beat Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-3, 6-2 and American Emma Navarro upset seventh-seeded Czech Karolina Muchova 6-3, 7-5.

Back in the men’s draw, American 11th seed Frances Tiafoe was a comfortable 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 victor over Monaco’s Valentin Vacherot, seeded 22.

Tiafoe’s win earned him a last 16 showdown with Russian seventh seed Daniil Medvedev.

Medvedev was a similarly unfussy winner over French 26th seed Arthur Rinderknech, easing to a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win in just under two hours.

Unseeded former world number three Stefanos Tsitsipas – whose ranking has plummeted to 53 – meanwhile toppled 18th seed Jiri Lehecka, 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7/3), 6-1 to reach the US Open fourth round for the first time.

Tsitsipas will face American eighth seed Ben Shelton in the last 16. Shelton defeated Canada’s Denis Shapovalov 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-4 in the late match.

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.”

NEW YORK — Whenever Venus and Serena Williams decide to permanently close the door on their storied careers — the duo are competing in the U.S. Open’s women’s doubles this week after receiving a wild-card invitation — the extraordinary tale of two sisters from Compton, just 15 months apart, who both reached No. 1 and won bushels of major titles will continue to reverberate. It might be the most implausible sports story of the last 50 years.

Although Serena’s career accomplishments exceed her older sister’s by considerable margins, including a 23-7 advantage in singles majors, what if Venus had been the baby of the Williams bunch? Would those numbers have evened out?

It’s a fair question.

Research has shown that younger siblings often benefit from being last in the birth order, sometimes called a “younger-sibling effect.” Turns out, the proverbial runt of the litter may have an edge. And while the Williams sisters remain the gold-standard example in tennis, the sport has no dearth of cases, from Alexander Zverev and Andy Murray to Naomi Osaka and Tracy Austin, to name a few.

The birth-order advantage

Serena and Venus Williams hold their trophies after winning the women’s doubles final at Wimbledon on July 9, 2016.

(Tim Ireland / Associated Press)

To researchers, Serena’s rise is not an isolated miracle of genetics, but a classic expression of family dynamics. Dr. Joseph Baker, a sports scientist at the University of Toronto, has found that elite athletes are statistically far more likely to be later-born children. “The birth-order effect means there’s some kind of social or genetic element in the family environment that’s driving it,” Baker says.

Dr. Frank Sulloway, a psychology research associate at the University of California, Berkeley, has found that the younger-sibling effect is a modest but reliable and statistically significant trend. While not deterministic — elite firstborns like John McEnroe and Novak Djokovic remain towering counter-examples, and both had younger siblings that played professionally — the later-born tilt repeats across the athletic landscape.

The backyard crucible

Some investigators trace the younger sibling effect to “situated learning.” That is, developing mastery through hands-on engagement, social modeling, and “vicarious experience,” according to Baker.

“Seeing someone from the same family unit achieve greatness gives the younger sibling the confidence to achieve the same,” he says.

For Serena, who is the youngest of five sisters in the blended Williams family, that meant learning to return Venus’s blistering serve on Compton’s public courts. It meant watching her more heralded older sibling navigate a mostly white women’s tour as a teenager. Because Venus was more experienced and stronger, Serena was forced to accelerate her development just to compete. And since their father, Richard Williams, largely kept them out of junior tournaments, that interdependent learning likely proved especially potent.

“I was able to learn, so I didn’t make the same mistakes she made,” Serena said in 2009. Now 44, Serena returned to compete at Wimbledon in singles and has teamed up for several doubles events this season, including in Cincinnati last month with 46-year-old Venus, after saying she was “evolving away from tennis” following her last appearance at the 2022 U.S. Open.

Sisters Jessica Korda and Nelly Korda walk on the ninth green at the Aramco Championship on April 3 in Las Vegas.

(Harry How / Getty Images)

This crucible is not unique to tennis.

Michael Jordan famously credited his older brother, Larry, with igniting his competitive fire. Golfer Nelly Korda followed older sister Jessica onto the LPGA Tour before surpassing her with major titles and an Olympic gold medal, while Peyton and Eli Manning grew up amid the backyard competition of a football-obsessed family that produced two Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks.

The “rough draft” of parenting

Beyond hardwood or turf battles, younger siblings can benefit from a profound shift in parental behavior, a phenomenon Louisiana Tech University sport and exercise psychology professor Dr. Jordan Blazo calls the “rough draft hypothesis.”

Firstborn children are often a parent’s athletic test drive. Parents often face a steep, expensive learning curve when navigating youth sports with older children, overscheduling them and committing developmental mistakes. By the time a younger sibling arrives, parents know the ropes and the pathways to pursue, according to Blazo, who studies sibling relationships and social comparison in sports. They are more attuned to financial and other feasibilities, which gives them a clearer road map to success.

Southern California native Austin, the youngest of three accomplished tennis children and the youngest U.S. Open champion in history at 16 years and 9 months, says her physicist father maintained healthy boundaries. When Tracy once invited him to watch her play German great Steffi Graf, he declined because of a computer club meeting. “Having a parent that wasn’t overly engrossed in my winning and losing was the healthiest thing,” Austin says.

Meanwhile, her mother, having navigated four older siblings’ athletic careers, was free to travel with 14-year-old Tracy because the nest was empty.

Russia’s Mirra Andreeva, 19, agrees. The reigning French Open winner followed her sister, Erika, three years older, onto the pro tour. “I had more benefits because I’m younger,” said fifth-ranked Mirra of her sister, who has been ranked as high as No. 65. “[My] parents obviously knew what to do. Tennis-wise… maybe that saved me some time.”

Zverev, who followed brother Mischa, 9 years his senior, says traveling to pro events as a kid helped normalized the ATP Tour early. “Maybe I wasn’t as nervous… because I’ve seen them and known them for years,” says Germany’s Zverev, who captured his first major title at this year’s French Open and is the top seed in New York.

Swing for the fences: Risk-taking

This competitive ecosystem also shapes how younger siblings play. Sulloway’s research on birth order and risk-taking reveals that later-borns are more psychologically wired to take strategic risks to carve out their own niche and stand out in the family.

Sulloway’s 2010 study of Major League Baseball brothers, conducted in collaboration with psychologist Richard Zweigenhaft, found that later-born siblings were vastly more likely to attempt to steal bases (and were more successful at it) than their first-born brothers. They were also far more likely to strike out because they were literally swinging for the fences, a high-risk, high-reward strategy. In tennis, this could translate to a willingness to play more aggressively, such as going for more on second serves rather than playing it safe, according to Sulloway.

Warmth over hostility

Yet, this sibling incubator seems to work best with one critical condition: the familial relationship is based on warmth and companionship. Blazo’s research shows that when sibling dynamics are colored by hostility and toxic comparisons, younger siblings experience “differentiation.” They can suffer from lower perceived competence, burn out, and ultimately quit or flee to other sports to escape the older sibling’s shadow, which isn’t necessarily a negative course correction. Sometimes it works out best for both.

In other words, the most successful sporting siblings preserve their emotional bonds. Richard and Oracene Williams famously enforced a sisters-first rule, allowing Venus and Serena to battle on court but walk off as best friends. Mirra Andreeva says her parents taught them that sisters are “the closest people we’re gonna have in life,” and to protect that bond they rarely practice together to keep emotions from getting “messy.”

Sisters Venus and Serena Williams hold the U.S. Open doubles winners’ trophy on Sept. 12, 1999.

(Al Bello / Getty Images)

When Venus and Serena were leapfrogging each other early in their careers, often clashing in Grand Slam finals across continents and surfaces, Serena insisted their competition existed in a supportive environment. Certainly it did in doubles, where they teamed up to win three Olympic gold medals and 14 major titles, including two at the U.S. Open in 1999 and 2009.

At the 2001 U.S. Open, where Venus beat Serena in the first all-Williams Grand Slam final, Serena said: “If anything I prefer to play Venus because that means that we have reached our maximum potential and that we’ll both go home winners. So for me, I always want to see Venus do well. I never want to see Venus lose.”

The long shadow

The McEnroe brothers, John and Patrick, separated by seven years, also saw their supportive relationship boost Patrick’s career. When Patrick, the youngest of three boys, was struggling in college and his mother pressured him to take the law boards, John stepped in, telling her to let Patrick chase his pro tennis dreams. Patrick eventually cracked the top 30 in singles and reached No. 3 in doubles, though he never reached the heights of John, who won seven Grand Slam titles and reached No. 1 in both singles and doubles.

“I think it holds water,” Stanford University alum Patrick said of his last-born experience, citing other examples such as Andy Roddick, whose older brother John was an accomplished collegiate player, and Hall-of-Famer Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, the youngest of four whose two older brothers, Emilio and Javier, were top ATP players. “It just so happened that my brother was exponentially more talented than I was as an athlete, but it’s definitely what at least got me into tennis.”

John McEnroe, left, and his younger brother Patrick compete during in a doubles match in Richmond, Va., on Sunday, Feb. 6, 1984.

(Joanna Pinneo / Associated Press)

The comparisons to John, however, played both ways. Patrick said they motivated him as a junior, but felt like a burden when he was trying to establish himself on tour.

With many physical, emotional and psychological variables in play, researchers admit it’s hard to pinpoint where DNA ends and drive begins when it comes to sibling dynamics. Ultimately, genetics and talent establish the ceiling, but the evidence suggests a supportive sibling ecosystem helps alchemize raw potential into greatness, and the sibling that benefits most is the one that comes later.

For Serena, the competitive yet protective shield provided by Venus was critical to her own success. Venus went first. She absorbed the bulk of pressure, provided the model and set the standard her younger sister spent a lifetime chasing, and eventually surpassing.

“Just everything that she does inspires me,” Serena said.

American wildcard Sofia Kenin beat 46-year-old compatriot Venus Williams 6-2, 7-6(6) in a ⁠⁠US Open first-round match ⁠⁠that began past midnight in New York, the latest start in women’s tournament history.

The match at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday got under way after Novak Djokovic’s loss to Mariano Navone in five sets, with a sizable contingent of fans staying on well past midnight for one more look at Williams, who was playing as a wildcard in her 96th career Grand ⁠⁠Slam main draw appearance.

“It was extremely late,” Williams told reporters. “I’ve never played a match that late before, and I was happy to see that so many people stuck around for that. It was a real honour to play in front of them.”

Kenin broke serve in the opening game and never trailed ‌‌in the first set, racing to a 3-0 lead as both players struggled to find their rhythm, combining for nine double faults.

Williams, cheered on by chants of “Let’s go Venus”, broke back to love to trim the deficit to 3-1 but dropped serve again as Kenin pulled away to close out the set.

Kenin reeled off three straight games to lead 3-1 in the second set, and while Williams showed flashes of the form that earned her seven ⁠⁠Grand Slam titles, she struggled to string points together, with her second ⁠⁠serve proving especially costly.

Kenin saved four break points to level at 5-5, leaving Williams screaming in frustration at handing her opponent another game with unforced errors. However, Williams still found a way to hold for 6-5 before Kenin forced ⁠⁠a tiebreak.

Williams appeared to have the upper hand in the tiebreak but could not convert any of her seven set points, as Kenin dug ⁠⁠in to close out the win.

“It’s not ideal,” Williams said. “I ⁠⁠would have preferred something else, definitely. It wasn’t great for either of us, so I think we both tried our best.

“I just don’t know any other sport where you have to start that late. I definitely think there’s room for improvement there.

“It’s ‌‌not easy to do in the first round. It’s not easy to do it at 1 or 2 in the morning to try to find your rhythm and play your best, ‌‌but ‌‌I tried my best.”

Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion, will next face top-ranked American Jessica Pegula.

Medvedev out, Paolini through

Meanwhile, former champion Daniil Medvedev and Pegula ⁠⁠advanced with little fuss earlier in the day, as players began their campaigns to grab a slice of the record prize purse of $108m up for grabs.

Russian Medvedev had crashed out in a chaotic first-round defeat a year ago but was all business on Sunday at Arthur Ashe Stadium, downing French qualifier Hugo Gaston 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 to quieten doubts after a frustrating run-up to the tournament.

“The last couple of weeks were not easy,” said Medvedev, who exited the Cincinnati and Montreal tournaments early. “I’m happy that today ⁠⁠I managed to produce high-level tennis.”

Dozens of ticketholders were lined up long before the action kicked off, and the home crowd was rewarded as world number three Pegula beat Romania’s Elena-Gabriela Ruse 6-3, 6-2 in the first match ⁠⁠at the showpiece stadium.

Twice Grand Slam champion Barbora Krejcikova earlier became the first seeded player to exit the tournament, saving six match points before succumbing to Kamilla Rakhimova 7-6(4), 6-2 on the outer courts.

Italian Jasmine Paolini survived a scare to beat Slovenia’s Veronika ‌‌Erjavec 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in the opener at Louis Armstrong Stadium to set up a meeting with compatriot Lucrezia Stefanini.

Czech Jiri Lehecka kicked off the action on the Grandstand with a 6-1, 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-2 win over Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta before Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk swatted aside Australian Storm Hunter 6-4, ‌‌6-1 ‌‌at the same stadium.

Kostyuk was joined in the next round by compatriot Elina Svitolina, who eased past Solana Sierra 6-1, 6-2.

Former champion Marin Cilic and 2022 runner-up Casper Ruud pulled out due to injuries shortly after the tournament got under way.

BBC Sport pundit Ashley Williams analyses Alex Scott’s “impressive” display, after the midfielder scored Bournemouth’s only goal in their 1-1 draw against Everton in the Premier League.

MATCH REPORT: Bournemouth 1-1 Everton – Premier League

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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.

VOGUE Williams has joked that husband Spencer Matthews is no longer interested in sex as she enters the final weeks of her pregnancy.

Speaking to Joanne McNally on their My Therapist Ghosted Me podcast, the 40-year-old admitted she had not taken kindly to the apparent turn of events.

“I’m trying to look good today because I don’t think Spenny fancies me anymore,” Vogue confessed.

Her podcast co-host Joanne McNally jokingly replied: “Of course he doesn’t! You’ve been married for ages now, come on!”

Laughing off the comment, Vogue continued: “No, because I think our fun times are over, if you get me. I’m too pregnant now.

“I don’t want to. I was just being a nice wife and a good participant.

letting slip

Vogue Williams reveals gender of hers and Spencer Matthew’s fourth baby

OH BABY

Pregnant Vogue Williams reveals two unusual names for fourth baby ahead of birth

“But then when he was like, ‘Yeah, well, you’re really pregnant,’ I was like, ‘Excuse me? Sorry, are you not into it anymore?’

“And he’s like, ‘Vogue, you’re giving birth any minute now.’”

Later in the podcast, Vogue described having to get up for yet another trip to the loo during the night.

“What part of me do you not find attractive?” she joked.

Pregnancy can cause women to need the toilet more frequently as the growing baby puts pressure on the bladder.

Their producer Joe then offered his take, saying: “I can’t speak for the whole male population, but I suspect on his part there comes a point where you’re sort of thinking more about the presence of a baby than the woman herself.”

Vogue hit back: “Well, do you know what, Joe? People are mad for pregnancy porn. Loads of people fancy pregnant people.”

Spencer and Vogue are expecting their fourth child, a baby boy, this autumn.

They are already parents to sons Theodore, seven, and Otto, three, as well as daughter Gigi, five.

Venus has fared better in doubles in recent years, reaching the quarter-finals in New York last year alongside Canada’s Leylah Fernandez.

She has not won a singles match at a Grand Slam since Wimbledon in 2021, where she reached the second round.

However, the Williams sisters still draw huge crowds together or separately, with stands packed out in Cincinnati for their recent return.

Serena, a 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, played what was expected to be the last tournament of her career in New York in 2022.

However, she made her return first in doubles at Queen’s in June before being given the final Wimbledon women’s singles wildcard.

Venus won her first US Open singles title in 2000, two months after earning her maiden major at Wimbledon.

She beat Serena in the final a year later to defend her title – the first of nine major showpieces the sister would contest.

Venus became the oldest US Open singles player in 44 years when she played at the tournament last year.

She lost in three sets to ninth seed Karolina Muchova and gave an emotional news conference afterwards, saying it was “nice to be free”.

In 2011, Williams was diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome, an incurable autoimmune disease with symptoms including pain, numbness and fatigue.

She spoke in 2025 about the impact of painful fibroids – abnormal growths that develop in the uterus – on her daily life.

In the men’s draw, France’s Gael Monfils has been awarded a wildcard in the final Grand Slam of his career.

The 39-year-old, who reached the New York semi-finals in 2016, will retire at the end of the season.

There is also one remaining wildcard for the men’s singles, which could go to 2016 champion Stan Wawrinka.

The Swiss is also calling time on his career at the end of the year.

Seven-time Grand Slam winner Venus Williams defeated 6-2, 6-2 by Emiliana Arango in the first round of Cincinnati Open.

Venus Williams’s losing streak in singles play has reached 13 matches.

The seven-time major champion was defeated 6-2, 6-2 by Emiliana Arango late on Friday in the first round of the Cincinnati Open.

The 46-year-old Williams received a wild-card entry to the WTA 1000 event. She has not won a singles match since July 2025.

Arango, a 25-year-old qualifier from Colombia ranked 95th, needed 1 hour, 5 minutes to defeat Williams on the grandstand court at Lindner Tennis Center.

Williams had her serve broken in the first game of the match and faced an uphill battle the rest of the way. Arango was 4 of 5 on converting break points and won 71 percent of her first-serve points.

Williams was unable to convert on her lone break opportunity and was only 41 percent on first-serve points.

“That kind of eased my nerves a little bit of having maybe a little bit of breathing room. And then I think I just did a good job of staying on it, trying to make her play as much as possible,” Arango said about getting ahead early.

Arango will face No 7 seed and defending Cincinnati champion Iga Swiatek in the second round.

Williams’s last singles victory came last year in Washington, when she defeated Peyton Stearns.

“I think that at all times I was really controlling the point, but unfortunately didn’t finish it the way I wanted to,” said Williams, who is making her 11th appearance in the tournament. “The encouraging part is that I’m controlling the shots, but I have to just get a little more consistent on that last part.”

Williams will remain in Cincinnati to play doubles with her sister, Serena, after they received a wild-card entry. They last played doubles together at the 2022 US Open.

The Williams sisters were slated to play doubles at Wimbledon before an injury to Serena. They will play Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns in the first round.

The doubles portion of the tournament starts on Sunday.

“I’m excited and hope that we can both go into it fresh, on our toes and ready. I’ll be preparing for that,” Venus Williams said.

Venus is also slated to play mixed doubles at the US Open later this month with Alexander Bublik.

ROBBIE Williams has revealed he has been diagnosed with autism at the age of 52 — and pals say he is taking it in his trademark stride.

The music legend recently sought a professional assessment after “feeling like there was something he was missing” about himself.

Robbie, who was also previously diagnosed with ADHD, casually revealed the news during a launch for the autumn/winter collection of his Hopeium clothing brand.

He said: “I’ve got ADHD. I’ve just found out I’ve got a bit of autism as well, which I f**ing love, because it explains so much, and it’s like a get-out-of-jail card now.

“If I do all the weird s*** that I do, I go, ‘Sorry, I’m autistic.’”

The married father of four went on: “With ADHD, you can completely and utterly concentrate on something 100 per cent.

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“But absolutely everything else, you just cannot do it. Ask my kids.”

The former Take That star, who also suffers from clinical depression, opened up about his creativity.

He said: “I’m completely and utterly obsessed with creating images and funny things, and if I’m creating images and making what I think are funny things, I’m not thinking about ‘me’.

“My brain is incredibly creative, and it can be creative about everything in the world, including things that can cause you to panic or be scared.”

He also revealed that he struggles to concentrate with background noise or distractions as he becomes overstimulated, saying: “It really throws me off.”

Since being diagnosed just a few weeks ago, The Sun can reveal the singer has met with an AuDHD expert — someone who specialises in both autism and ADHD.

Robbie hopes the meetings will give him a greater understanding of his behaviour.

A source told The Sun: “Robbie has known for some time about his ADHD, but he always felt there was something he was missing.

“Someone suggested he could be autistic, and so within the past few weeks, he sought private medical advice and underwent an assessment.

It’s still early days, but Robbie has spoken with an AuDHD expert to get a greater understanding of what the diagnosis means for him and what options can be put in place to make life easier.

“Like with everything life throws at him, Robbie is taking the diagnosis in his stride.

“It’s business as usual. The diagnosis just gives a greater understanding of what makes Robbie Robbie.”

The Sun was the only newspaper Robbie met during the intimate launch in front of fashion bigwigs at Flannels on London’s Oxford Street.

He told us he hopes his Hopeium brand will bring some fun into the notoriously uptight and judgemental fashion industry.

His new tongue-in-cheek range includes “Gandhi” football tops and shirts adorned with images of a hand flipping the middle finger. Chuckling, he said he is already planning to bring out a Dalai Lama version.

Robbie had a well-documented battle with alcohol and substance abuse in the nineties and early noughties.

But he claimed he is now addicted to creating art and clothes after being clean and sober for over two decades.

Robbie said: “I really got into drawing and creating. I think it’s my addict’s gene. Look, I can no longer do cocaine. No longer do MDMA, no longer drink, so, you know, where does the addiction go to?

“Well, it goes to several places, and one of them is clothes.”

Robbie went on: “It’s a bit of silliness because I love silliness, and there doesn’t seem to be any silliness in fashion.

“It seems to be outlawed because, you know, as much as I love fashion, it’s properly pretentious and very, very serious, isn’t it?”

Robbie plans to draft in his wife Ayda Field, 47, to model the collection in a bid to boost sales.

Robbie, who has recently dramatically trimmed down after turning to weight-loss jabs, also hopes to make his catwalk debut at London Fashion Week.

He said: “Hopefully we will see me modelling it on the runway.

“I mean, I’m in decent nick now, so yeah. I’ve been looking after myself. I’d be happy if any artist started wearing the brand, and Ayda will wear it too.”

He added of his new clobber: “I should be wearing it on my tour – it would make marketing sense.”

The singer is set to play shows across Europe and South America this autumn.

He is also hotly tipped to play Glastonbury next June for the first time since 1998, with sources saying he could follow in Sir Rod Stewart’s footsteps and play the Sunday Legends slot.

Last month, a clip of Robbie went viral after something appeared to fall out of his nose during an unplanned live appearance on German TV at the World Cup in New York.

Some viewers thought Robbie was back taking cocaine.

Rather than fearing for his career, Robbie laughed off the suggestion he had relapsed, and believes no one cares anyway.

He said: “Can I clear something up, please, as well? I didn’t relapse on cocaine at the World Cup, but now forever and ever and ever the internet will be assured of itself that coke fell out of my nose.

“No, it was Nicorette. The thing is, I thought about it the next day — I was lying in bed, and 50 million people had seen me supposedly relapse on coke at the World Cup, and I was like, ‘If I was on coke, it wouldn’t be a f***ing problem anyway, would it? Who f***ing cares?’”

And he said some people seemed to be pleased at the prospect of him doing class A drugs again.

He went on: “So many comments online were like, ‘Good for you, Robbie. Everyone loves the f***ing packet.’ So I made some new fans due to what they thought I was doing.”

Before Spain took on Argentina in the World Cup final last month, Robbie was front and centre in the closing ceremony, taking to the pitch to sing the official Fifa anthem Desire alongside Nicole Scherzinger and Italian singer Laura Pausini.

In keeping with still feeling like he’s just Rob from Stoke rather than one of the biggest-selling British singers of all-time, he swaggered towards the halfway line in a blue Adidas tracksuit – adorned with diamantes for the momentous occasion.

Robbie said: “The sparkles were added at the artist’s request, and it felt so comfy.

“It’s best to be comfy, so when they said, ‘What do you want to wear?’ I just said, ‘I want to wear a tracksuit. Can you put some jewels on it so it’s a bit showbizzy?’”

Insisting he is still just as ambitious as he was three decades ago, Robbie said of his future plans: “Lots of records. I’m 52, still ambitious, still have this gaping chasm that is unfillable.

“Still want, still need, still want to have purpose, I want to be out there doing things. I am still as ambitious as I was when I was 22 and it’s served me well. I have new music, new tours too.”

Robbie, who has been in the public eye since 1992, also said he would be ignoring snobbish critics, saying: “I don’t need validation from the po-faced fashion industry. I never got that from the po-faced music industry.

“I would like validation from the general clothing-buying public.”