Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz exit US Open at quarter-finals

Star pairing Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz defeated Britain’s Lloyd Glasspool and his partner Erin Routliffe before losing in the quarter-finals of the US Open mixed doubles.

Williams – a 23-time grand slam singles champion – made her return to tennis in June at the age of 44, while seven-time major winner Alcaraz, 22, had been off the tour since April nursing a wrist injury.

The high-profile duo embraced after capitalising on a third match point at Arthur Ashe Stadium to secure a 5-3 4-1 victory in just under an hour.

“I never expected to be back on this court,” said Williams, according to usopen.org. “It’s just a really cool moment – I never thought this would happen.”

Alcaraz double-faulted on the first point en route to dropping the opening service game and admitted to feeling some nerves.

“I was out for almost five months and I almost forgot how it feels stepping out on the court once again,” said the Spaniard.

“She (Williams) made it really easy for me – just to try to enjoy it and go for it every time.”

Williams and Alcaraz were subsequently denied a semi-final spot by a 5-4 (4) 4-1 loss to fourth seeds Flavio Cobolli and Belinda Bencic.

Earlier, top seeds Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka suffered a first-round exit after surrendering a one-set lead to lose to Britain’s Henry Patten and Czech player Katerina Siniakova.

Patten and Siniakova – two of the world’s top-ranked doubles players – overcame some early nerves to complete a 1-4 4-2 10-2 comeback victory.

Djokovic – a 24-time grand slam singles champion, including four US Open titles – was aced by Siniakova on match point in the tie-break.

Patten, 30, told Sky Sports: “It wasn’t looking very good for a while. In this format, we played one bad game and