Elena Rybakina remains hopeful of being ready for the US Open after a leg injury forced her out of Cincinnati, but she says the priority is to avoid coming back too soon.

The world No 2 retired from her quarter-final against Iga Swiatek after only five games. At first, there was concern over an Achilles problem, especially after Rybakina said, “I couldn’t even push from the serve. It’s painful to walk, and we will know more tomorrow when I do the MRI”, but those fears have now eased.

Rybakina has already travelled to New York for the season-ending major, yet she has not been on court at Flushing Meadows. Her name was also absent from Wednesday’s practice schedule. Even so, the Kazakh player has offered an encouraging update after reaching the final in Cincinnati’s warm-up swing in August.

“I picked up some injury [in my] last tournament so I am trying to do everything possible to recover. And for now it has been going well,” Rybakina told The Mirror US.

“Unfortunately, I was not on the court yet [to practice]. We will try it in the next few days, but yeah it seems okay. So hopefully it’s going to be good for my first match.

“It was very important [to rest], in total I have like 10 days [to recover] and I still have a couple more to prepare.

“It depends also when it’s going to be my [first] match, but we just don’t want to rush and yeah, just taking my time to be 100%.”

Rybakina had been set for the US Open mixed doubles event with Taylor Fritz on Tuesday, but she withdrew as her focus shifted fully to singles.

The US Open singles main draw begins on Sunday, 30 August, with first-round matches spread across three days. Rybakina will be the second seed in the bottom half of the draw behind Aryna Sabalenka.

There is also a ranking implication. Sabalenka is set to lose 2,000 points after her 2025 title run, which gives Rybakina a route to overtake her and reach world No 1 for the first time. The 27-year-old needs only a semi-final run to move into top spot.

The first day of the US Open mixed doubles event delivered immediate upheaval, with several of the sport’s biggest names making early exits. Aryna Sabalenka, Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams were all among those sent out after opening-round defeats.

With the redesigned competition drawing strong crowds at Flushing Meadows, the format once again produced plenty of uncertainty. Teams were assembled from players who had never paired before, and in some cases may not have known one another until they stepped on court. Short sets that ended when a side reached four games, or five if the score was 4-4, meant the action moved quickly and so did the surprises.

Alex Eala was one of the first casualties. Playing alongside Felix Auger-Aliassime, she could not find rhythm against Gael Monfils and Elina Svitolina, who won 4-1, 4-1. Even so, Eala and Auger-Aliassime each collected $20,000 for reaching the first round.

The same amount went to Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka after their first-round departure. Elsewhere, Katerina Siniakova and Henry Patten recovered after dropping the opening set to move into the quarter-finals.

World No 3 Alexander Zverev and Taylor Townsend also bowed out in the opening round after losing to Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli. That same Bencic-Cobolli pairing returned to Arthur Ashe Stadium and ended the run of Alcaraz and Williams, winning 5-4, 4-1.

Although prize money has not been a major factor for Alcaraz or Williams for some time, they still earned $60,000 each across their two matches. The last four pairs now move toward Wednesday’s climax, where the title and the biggest pay days remain at stake.

Notably, all four doubles specialist pairings lost on Tuesday to teams made up of singles players, undercutting the idea that regular doubles combinations held the edge in this event.

The semi-finals will feature Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev against Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik, while Bencic and Cobolli will try to stop Gael Monfils and Elina Svitolina, with Monfils playing his final US Open before ending his career.

Carlos Alcaraz and Serena Williams have been eliminated from US Open mixed doubles after falling in the quarter-finals to Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli, leaving attention fixed on what comes next for the defending singles champion in New York.

Their partnership had started brightly. In the opening round, Alcaraz and Williams beat former doubles world No 1-ranked players Erin Routliffe and Lloyd Glasspool, with Williams delivering the more commanding performance while Alcaraz made his first competitive appearance since injuring his wrist at the Barcelona Open in April.

The Spaniard produced several sharp moments in front of a full Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd, but he later acknowledged that nerves were part of the experience as he shared the court with Williams for the first time.

“I think everybody could see, I double faulted on the first point, I was really nervous,” said Alcaraz after his win against Routliffe and Glasspool.

“Playing alongside Serena, full crowd, after four and a half months [injured], I almost forgot how it feels stepping on the court. But she made it easy for me, I tried to enjoy it and go for it.”

The pair were unable to extend that run, going down 5-4, 4-1 to Bencic and Cobolli. Their brief campaign earned $120,000 in prize money, but it also renewed questions over whether Alcaraz will enter the singles event beginning on Sunday.

That uncertainty has already drawn comment from several observers, including former world No 1 Andy Roddick and 1997 US Open finalist Greg Rusedski, who have said it would be a significant risk for Alcaraz to return to a best-of-five-set match in his first singles tournament in more than four months.

Former British No 1 Laura Robson added to that concern and said: “I don’t know. It’s going to be tough.”

Alcaraz did not appear to be serving at full pace for much of his mixed doubles run, with some first serves landing at under 100 mph. His groundstrokes looked solid enough for a player coming back from a long layoff, but the serve may prove decisive in whether he competes in singles.

Given the seriousness of the wrist issue, some rust was to be expected. Still, unless he was holding back his serve before unleashing it in singles, Alcaraz did not look fully prepared to chase Grand Slam glory in the two matches he played with Williams.

All eyes now turn to whether he remains in the singles draw to be made on Thursday, with a return in an event such as next month’s Laver Cup seen as a realistic alternative if the US Open arrives too soon.