Venus Williams Returns to U.S. Open Ahead of New Mixed Doubles Format

Venus Williams will return to the U.S. Open next month in the revamped mixed doubles tournament after she got a wild-card entry playing with Reilly Opelka. She is also in the wild card mix for a singles bid.

After more than a year away from playing in any majors, Williams, 45, made her return to tennis just last week at the DC Open, where she became the oldest player to win a WTA singles match since 2004.

The new format for mixed doubles will be moved up to fan week on Aug. 19-20, instead of the third week of the U.S. Open in previous seasons.

The number of doubles teams has been cut to 16 from 32. Eight teams will get automatic entries based on combined singles rankings, instead of combined doubles rankings. 

Matches will be played in short sets to four games using no-ad scoring, with tiebreakers at 4-4 and a 10-point math tie break in place of a third set.

The winning team will receive a prize of $1 million, an increase from $200,000 last year.

Williams has seven Grand Slam singles titles and 14 Grand Slam doubles titles, her most recent being her doubles win—along with sister Serena Williams—at Wimbledon in 2016.

She got another wild-card entry for the Cincinnati Open next month.

The eight duos with direct U.S. Open entries are No. 11 Emma Navarro and No. 1 Jannik Sinner; No. 10 Paula Badosa and No. 5 Jack Draper; No. 3 Iga Swiatek and No. 13 Casper Ruud; No. 12 Elena Rybakina and No. 4 Taylor Fritz; No. 7 Amanda Anisimova and No. 9 Holger Rune; Belinda Bencic and No. 3 Alexander Zverev; No. 4 Jessica Pegula and No. 15 Tommy Paul; No. 5 Mirra Andreeva and No. 14 Daniil Medvedev.

The six wild-card duo entries to the U.S Open are Emma Raducanu and No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz; No. 8 Madison Keys and Frances Tiafoe; Olga Danilovic and No. 6 Novak Djokovic; Taylor Townsend and No. 7 Ben Shelton; Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori.

There are still two wild-card entries yet to be announced.