Serena Williams’ Return Ends At Queen’s Club

Serena Williams’ doubles campaign at Queen’s is over after her playing partner Victoria Mboko suffered a left knee injury at the HSBC Championships doubles tournament on Wednesday.

The wild cards got their campaign off to a winning start on Tuesday, defeating No. 3 seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe 7-6(2), 6-2 in Williams’s first professional match since the 2022 US Open. However, Mboko slipped on the grass while trailing Karolina Pliskova 6-2, 3-4 in her opening singles contest, and was forced to retire.

Leylah Fernandez
and Laura Siegemund
advance to the semifinals via walkover, where they will face either No. 2 seeds Gabriela Dabrowski and Luisa Stefani or Iva Jovic and McCartney Kessler.

Williams, 44, will continue her comeback at the doubles in Berlin next week with her partner has yet to be announced.

Williams won 23 Grand Slam singles titles — including seven at Wimbledon — before stepping away from the game, saying at the time she was “evolving” away from tennis rather than “retiring.”