Dorothy

The mixed doubles championship is once again being staged in the week before the singles main draw, after organisers revamped the format last year to attract more leading singles players by reducing the field and giving the event a standalone slot on the calendar.

This was the bargain offered by the revamped mixed doubles championship: unprecedented star wattage, abbreviated matches and abrupt endings. Last year’s overhaul moved mixed doubles to a standalone slot before singles, cut the field to 16 and raised the top prize to $1m, favoring singles stars over the objections of doubles specialists. Early rounds use four-game sets, no-ad scoring and a 10-point decider. Only Wednesday’s final returns to six-game sets.

It was also seven-time major winner Alcaraz's first match back on tour after a wrist injury sidelined the reigning men's singles champion since April. The 22-year-old was born five years after Williams won the 1998 mixed doubles title at Flushing Meadows.

Alcaraz is likewise making a comeback, albeit not quite to the extent of Williams. The star missed the last four months of action due to a wrist injury, forcing him to sit out the French Open and Wimbledon.

That momentum did not survive the quick turnaround, with Bencic and Cobolli ending their run 5-4 (4), 4-1. Yet Williams looked anything but a nostalgia act, flying to the net and reading points a stroke ahead. She even served the opening game of the quarter-final ahead of Alcaraz – a rarity in mixed doubles. When it was over after 55 minutes, Williams might have been second-guessing her decision to decline the singles wildcard organizers had kept open for her before giving it to Sofia Kenin.

Now having won in their first-round matchup, Williams and Alcaraz will take on the fourth-seeded pairing of Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli.