Serena returns: Williams makes a winning comeback in doubles at Queen’s Club with Mboko

LONDON (AP) — After nearly four years away from professional tennis, Serena Williams showed she still has plenty of power to her game as she made a winning return at Queen’s Club on Tuesday.

The 44-year-old Williams hit service winners of up to 120 mph and some ferocious winners as she teamed up with 19-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko to win their opening doubles match at the Queen’s Club grass-court tournament.

Williams and Mboko beat third-seeded duo Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe 7-6 (2), 6-2 in Williams’ first professional match since the 2022 U.S. Open. They next face Leylah Fernandez and Laura Siegemund in the quarterfinals.

As if to punctuate that she’s back, Williams served out the first-round match with two aces followed by a service winner.

“It was so fun. I had so much fun playing with Victoria,” Williams said in an on-court interview. “We’ve never played together but it just felt so natural playing with her.”

Later, though, Williams gave herself a modest grade in her post-match news conference.

“A C-minus,” Williams said, before cutting herself some slack. “With all the elements, considering coming back on grass is probably not the easiest surface. … Grass, four years. Overall, I think it was decent.”

Perhaps more than decent, given the quality of the opposition. Routliffe is a two-time U.S. Open champion in doubles and Melichar-Martinez has made the doubles final at both Flushing Meadows and Wimbledon.

Sure, Williams’ performance was uneven, and at times it looked like she may have lost half a step. But it was clear she can still compete at a high level.

Even Williams seemed to be surprised at the quality of her rapid-reaction backhand winner at 4-4 in the first set, laughing as she high-fived Mboko.

Her teenage partner was clearly impressed.

“I thought she was moving great,” said Mboko, one of the rising stars on the WTA tour who is already ranked No. 9 in singles. “There was that one shot you hit, remember, you were on the run, on the backhand, and I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, she’s got it.’”

The crowd loved it too, from the moment Williams stepped onto the court on a sunny but windy afternoon.

Williams received a standing ovation as she made her entrance, by far the loudest cheer of the day at the Andy Murray Arena, even from a crowd that had earlier watched British players Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter secure wins in the singles tournament at the HSBC Championships.

It was Williams’ first appearance at Queen’s Club, which is nestled among residential blocks near Hammersmith in west London. The club, which held its first championships in 1881, did not stage a women’s tournament for more than 50 years before the WTA tour returned to the venue in 2025.

‘Really special’

The men’s tournament, which starts next week, has long been one of the main grass-court warmup events for Wimbledon and counts Carlos Alcaraz, Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal, Pete Sampras, Boris Becker and John McEnroe among its former winners.

“I never got to play here, it was always just the men,” Williams said. “It felt really special to play some place so iconic.”

Aside from a sell-out crowd, Williams also drew some celebrity faces to Queen’s Club. Her friend Lindsey Vonn, the skiing star whose own comeback ended in a crash at the Milan Cortina Olympics, watched on from one of the balconies.

Williams’ two daughters, Olympia and Adira, were also in attendance. For Adira, who was born in 2023, it was the first time watching her mother play a match.

Not that their response to the win was overly enthusiastic, according to Williams.

“Adira wanted to go to the toy store, and Olympia wanted to know what was for dinner,” she said.

No Wimbledon decision yet

Williams is also set to play doubles at the Berlin Open in Germany next week. But even after a winning return, she remains undecided when it comes to whether to extend her comeback to Wimbledon, which starts June 29.

“It’s just a day at a time,” Williams said. “I still have a little time to decide, and they have been great about giving me that space and time to decide.”

Williams had not competed since bidding farewell at the 2022 U.S. Open. At the time, she said she didn’t want to use the word “retiring” and instead declared that she was “evolving” away from tennis.

Williams won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, including seven at Wimbledon, before stepping away from the game. She also added 14 Grand Slam doubles titles, including six at Wimbledon — all with her older sister Venus Williams.

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis