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.

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 all of a sudden the first set’s gone.

“We knew the same was possible in the second set and we played an amazing tie-break – Kat acing Novak on match point was pretty fun.”

Patten and Siniakova were later beaten 5-4 (6) 4-5 (3) 10-8 by married couple Gael Monfils and Elina Svitolina in the quarter-finals.

The US Open mixed doubles was revamped last year to include singles stars in a bid to attract greater attention to the format.

A shorter scoring system was introduced, with only four games required to win a set in matches before the final, no ‘advantage’ scoring, and 10-point match tie-breaks instead of a third set throughout.

In qualifying for the women’s singles, British trio Fran Jones, Katie Swan and Harriet Dart each progressed to the second round.

Jones defeated Italy’s Nuria Brancaccio 6-3 6-4 after Dart overcame 16-year-old American Jordyn Hazelitt 6-0 6-7 (1) 6-1. Swan beat another American, Katrina Scott, 6-3 6-1.

Jodie Burrage lost 7-6 (1) 6-4 to Spain’s Guiomar Maristany, while compatriot Henry Searle exited men’s qualifying following a 6-1 6-2 defeat to 16-year-old American Michael Antonius.

In the open air of the Raiffeisen Arena, with bedlam all around, there was nowhere to hide for Celtic or Martin O’Neill.

The Scottish champions had endured one of their darkest nights in their European history.

After going out to Kairat Almaty on penalties last year at this stage of the Champions League play-offs, that is saying something.

Four goals up on aggregate against LASK, O’Neill’s Celtic somehow conspired to implode in a second half with little sign of a response on the way to a 5-4 aggregate loss.

There was no hiding place, and the Celtic manager was frank when put in the spotlight at full-time.

“I’m responsible for this one,” he said.

“Without a doubt. Naturally it took me a long time to get over the Uefa Cup final in 2003 but this was majorly disappointing.

“In the context of things, one was a final which it would have been terrific to win, this was a qualifying game which we should have been able to get through.

“We know that we are a million miles from the finished article. That’s absolutely true. I think we thought that anyway.”

First Published: Aug 25 2026 | 9:36 AM IST

Wyndham Clark says he didn’t take “a bad lie and make it good.”

And if you think that he did during Sunday’s final round of the BMW Championship?

“People can think what they want,” Clark said. 

His comments came Tuesday ahead of this week’s Tour Championship, where he was asked about a scene to the right of the 14th hole at Bellerive Country Club, host of the BMW. There, while Clark prepared to hit his second shot on the par-4, a CBS camera positioned to his right caught the following:

– Clark grabbed an iron from his bag, placed it behind his ball, then took a practice swing just to the left of the ball. Twice more, he placed his iron behind the ball and took practice swings, before going back to his bag for a different iron. At the time, Clark was tied for the lead with Rory McIlroy. 

– CBS cut away to Gary Woodland on the 15th hole. 

– When it returned, Clark was placing an iron behind his ball. He then took another practice swing to the left of it before his caddie, David Pelekoudas, moved between Clark and the camera, though another practice swing could be seen. Clark then went back to his bag for a different iron. Three times, he placed that iron behind his ball and took practice swings. At about this point, CBS analysts said the following:

Trevor Immelman: “He’s taking a long look at this. This is like the third club that he’s placed down behind the ball there.”

Frank Nobilo: “So the lie might be better.”

From there, Clark placed his 9-iron behind the ball and hit, finished the hole with a par and went on to win by three. But Nobilo’s comment, along with several similar remarks on social media, is interesting. Did Clark improve his lie? On Tuesday, Clark was asked the following question:

Wyndham, your drive on 14 Sunday went into the right rough, and there was a lot of scrutiny on social media but also even the TV announcers. Curious about you changing clubs and tapping down the rough multiple times. Just curious what you were thinking there, and there was a similar situation possibly at the U.S. Open, and if you’ve been hearing about this at all.

“I didn’t really hear much about it,” Clark said. “I know the shot that you’re talking about. I think any player, when they’re trying to judge a lie, takes out different clubs to see what it feels like.

“I never fully put the club down behind it. I don’t think anything of it.”

As part of his answer, he also noted a pair of previous incidents in which his actions around the ball have been questioned — during the third round of the 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational, Clark placed his iron behind his ball, causing the grass and ball to move, though no rules penalty was assessed; then, at this year’s U.S. Open, a video of Clark stepping on the grass around his ball circulated online. On Tuesday, Clark also brought up the actions of Bryson DeChambeau at this year’s Open Championship, where DeChambeau was penalized for improving the area around his intended swing. 

“When the cameras are on you, they’re going to find anything,” Clark said. “And I think you saw that in Bryson’s case. It happened to me at the U.S. Open, it happened to me at Bay Hill. It’s happened to a lot of guys where they can see stuff that maybe looks like something that maybe it’s not.”

Rule 8.1b (4) states that players are allowed to, “ground the club lightly right in front of or right behind the ball,” with “ground the club lightly” meaning, “allowing the weight of the club to be supported by the grass, soil, sand or other material on or above the ground surface.”

“That lie was never bad,” Clark said Tuesday. “It was more just judging what it was. By no means did I take a bad lie and make it really good.

“People can think what they want. I know I didn’t do anything that was costing the integrity of the field. That’s all I’ve got to say about that.”

“>

With all nine GAA Rounders All-Ireland final line-ups now confirmed, the provincial breakdown makes for fascinating reading — and it is Connacht that leads the way.

Across the Junior, Intermediate and Senior grades in Women’s, Men’s and Mixed, there are 18 places available in the nine All-Ireland finals.

Connacht has claimed seven of those 18 places, despite having just 22 teams from eight clubs competing across the championships.

That means almost one in every three Connacht team entries has reached an All-Ireland final.

Connacht leads the provincial standings with seven finalists, followed by Leinster with five, while Ulster and Munster have three each.

Connacht Dominates the Mixed Championships

The standout area for Connacht has been Mixed Rounders, where the province has produced an extraordinary four of the six All-Ireland finalists.

Breaffy will take on Glynn Barntown in the Senior Mixed final.

Galway City Rapparees face Emo in the Intermediate decider, while the Junior final will be an all-Connacht affair between Galway City Rapparees and Kilmore.

It means Connacht is already guaranteed at least one Mixed All-Ireland title and has a representative in every Mixed final.

The province could yet complete a remarkable clean sweep of the three Mixed grades.

Half of the Women’s Finalists Are from Connacht

Connacht has also enjoyed an outstanding championship in the Women’s grades, providing three of the six finalists.

Breaffy face Limekiln in the Senior final, while Galway City Rapparees take on fellow Connacht side Elphin at Intermediate level.

St Kieran’s and St Senan’s complete the Women’s programme with an all-Limerick Junior final.

Between Mixed and Women’s Rounders, Connacht therefore provides seven of the 12 finalists.

Remarkably, the province doesn’t have a representative in any of the three Men’s finals.

Three Connacht Men’s Teams Fall at Semi-Final Stage

That statistic doesn’t tell the full story of Connacht’s Men’s championship performances.

Three Connacht Men’s teams reached the All-Ireland semi-final stage, only for all three to be eliminated before the finals.

So while Connacht has no Men’s finalist, the province still had significant representation at the business end of the Men’s championships.

Combine those three Men’s semi-finalists with Connacht’s seven finalists in Mixed and Women’s and 10 of the province’s 22 team entries reached at least an All-Ireland semi-final.

That’s 45.5% of all Connacht entries reaching the last four or better.

For a province containing just eight participating clubs, it is a remarkable return.

Ulster’s Challenge Is Almost Exclusively Men’s

If Connacht’s success is concentrated in Mixed and Women’s Rounders, Ulster presents almost the complete opposite picture.

Ulster has three finalists — and all three are Men’s teams.

Erne Eagles and Carrickmacross will contest an all-Ulster Senior Men’s final, while St Clare’s have reached the Intermediate Men’s decider against St Senan’s.

Outside of the Senior Men’s final and St Clare’s at Intermediate level, there is no Ulster representation across the other seven All-Ireland finals.

No Ulster side has reached a Women’s final and there are no Ulster representatives in any of the Mixed finals.

It creates one of the most interesting contrasts of the championship:

Connacht — seven finalists, but none in Men’s.

Ulster — three finalists, all in Men’s.

Limerick Provides All Three Munster Finalists

Munster’s three finalists also produce a striking statistic.

Every one of them comes from Limerick.

St Senan’s will contest the Intermediate Men’s final against St Clare’s, while St Kieran’s and St Senan’s meet in the Junior Women’s final.

It means Limerick is responsible for 100% of Munster’s representation across the nine All-Ireland finals.

The all-Limerick Junior Women’s decider also guarantees the county at least one All-Ireland title.

Leinster the Only Province Represented Across All Three

Leinster sits second in the overall standings with five of the 18 finalist places.

What makes Leinster’s performance notable is the spread of those teams.

• Two Mixed finalists
• Two Men’s finalists
• One Women’s finalist

That makes Leinster the only province with representation in the All-Ireland finals across all three disciplines — Women’s, Men’s and Mixed.

While Connacht leads on overall numbers, Leinster has produced the most evenly distributed challenge.

Galway City Rapparees Lead the Club Count

At individual club level, Galway City Rapparees have three teams contesting All-Ireland finals, the highest representation of any club.

Rapparees entered five adult championship teams this season and have reached the Intermediate Women’s, Intermediate Mixed and Junior Mixed finals.

That’s a 60% final conversion rate — three finalists from five entries.

They account for three of Connacht’s seven final places on their own.

Breaffy and St Senan’s have also enjoyed outstanding championships, with two teams each reaching All-Ireland finals.

GAA Rounders 2026 Provincial Finalist Breakdown

Breakdown by Discipline

• Mixed: Connacht 4, Leinster 2
• Men’s: Ulster 3, Leinster 2, Munster 1
• Women’s: Connacht 3, Munster 2, Leinster 1

The figures tell several very different provincial stories.

Four of the six Mixed finalists are from Connacht. Half of the Women’s finalists are from Connacht. Half of the Men’s finalists are from Ulster. Every Munster finalist comes from Limerick. Leinster is the only province represented across all three disciplines.

But perhaps the standout statistic remains Connacht’s overall return.

Just 22 teams from eight clubs entered from the province — seven have reached All-Ireland finals and 10 made it as far as the semi-final stage.

For such a relatively small playing base, that is an exceptional return from Connacht in the 2026 GAA Rounders Championships.

LiveScores Now Available at IrishScores.com