Sawt Falasteen - Venus Williams gets US Open mixed doubles wild card spot

Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam singles champion who turned 45 last month, and US compatriot Opelka were among 14 teams named on Tuesday to the revamped August 19-20 event by the US Tennis Association.

Williams won her opening singles and doubles match at the DC Open last week in her first WTA tournament since last year's Miami Open.

She is also set to play as a wild card in next month's Cincinnati Open and could ask for a US Open singles wild card. Those are expected to be announced in about two weeks.

The US Open winning mixed doubles team will receive $1 million.

Eight teams received direct entry into the field by combined singles rankings, including top-ranked Jannik Sinner of Italy -- the reigning US Open, Wimbledon and Australian Open singles champion -- with American Emma Navarro.

Other duos making the field on rankings included Britain's fifth-ranked Jack Draper and Spain's Paula Badosa, Germany's third-ranked Alexander Zverev and Swiss Belinda Bencic, fourth-ranked American Taylor Fritz and Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, Dane Holger Rune and American Amanda Anisimova, 2021 US Open winner Daniil Medvedev and fellow Russian Mirra Andreeva, Americans Jessica Pegula and Tommy Paul and Poland's Iga Swiatek and Norway's Casper Ruud.

Other wild card entry teams include five-time Grand Slam singles champion and world number two Carlos Alcaraz of Spain with Britain's Emma Raducanu, Americans Madison Keys and Frances Tiafoe, world women's doubles number one Taylor Townsend and fellow American Ben Shelton, Italians Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori and Serbians Olga Danilovic and Novak Djokovic -- who has won a record 24 men's Grand Slam singles titles.

Two other wild card teams will be announced later.

G.AbuHamad--SF-PST