Serena Williams’ return to professional tennis is already over. The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, who had stepped back onto a match court for the first time since the 2022 US Open, saw her Queen’s Club campaign end on Thursday when doubles partner Victoria Mboko was forced to withdraw with a knee injury.
The comeback. Williams, 44, partnered the 19-year-old Canadian Mboko as a wild-card pairing in the women’s doubles at the HSBC Championships. On Tuesday the pair upset the No. 3 seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe 7-6(2), 6-2 — Williams’ first competitive match in roughly 1,375 days. She served at up to 120 mph and, by her own account afterward, simply set out to enjoy herself rather than dwell on the nerves of a return so long in the making.
The injury. The campaign unravelled away from the doubles court. Mboko, the world No. 9 in singles, was beaten in her singles match by former world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova on Wednesday after slipping on the grass and hurting her left knee. Trailing 6-2, 3-4, she went down clutching the knee and retired in tears, sending Pliskova through to the quarterfinals. With Mboko unable to continue, the doubles pair pulled out of their next match on Thursday, and Leylah Fernandez and Laura Siegemund advanced via walkover.
What it means. Williams has not detailed her plans beyond this week, so it remains unclear whether the Queen’s cameo was a one-off or the start of a wider return. For Mboko — one of the WTA’s brightest young talents, guided by former Iga Swiatek coach Wim Fissette — the more pressing concern is the grass ahead: the injury throws her participation in the rest of the swing, and potentially Wimbledon, into doubt. The Championships begin on 29 June.
For a few sun-and-wind-swept hours at the Andy Murray Arena, though, the result barely mattered. Williams drew the loudest reception of the day on her entrance, a reminder of her pull on the sport years after she last competed — and a tantalising, if fleeting, glimpse of what a fuller comeback might look like
