Serena Williams' chance to win the Queen's Club doubles title ended suddenly on Thursday. This happened after her partner, Victoria Mboko, had to pull out of the tournament.
Williams made a big comeback on Tuesday. This was her first match in four years. She teamed up with Mboko and won against Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe in straight sets during the first round.
They were set to face Leylah Fernandez and Laura Siegemund in the quarter-finals on Thursday in west London. But Mboko withdrew just hours before the match. She was struggling to recover from a left knee injury she got during her singles match against Karolina Pliskova on Wednesday.
Mboko, ranked number nine in the world, slipped on the court and could not finish her singles match. The 19-year-old Canadian was clearly upset after her injury. She told the physios, “there is no stability right now.”
Mboko decided not to risk making her injury worse by playing doubles with Williams. Tournament organizers confirmed her withdrawal, leaving Williams waiting to continue her comeback at the Berlin Open doubles next week.
Reports say Williams will partner with Karolina Muchova in Berlin. The 23-time Grand Slam champion is still thinking about whether to play at Wimbledon. She has not said if she will join any singles events during her surprising return, but mentioned earlier this week that she has not ruled out playing in the Wimbledon doubles.
To play at the All England Club, Williams will need a wildcard. This is because she is not ranked high enough for automatic entry into the tournament. She has won seven Wimbledon singles titles and six doubles titles with her sister Venus.
“They have been great about giving me that space and time to decide,” Williams said on Tuesday, talking about the possibility of playing at Wimbledon.
When asked about giving Williams a wildcard, Wimbledon chief executive Sally Bolton replied on Thursday, “I can’t answer that question, but I guess what I can say is we can all see how much excitement Serena being back on a tennis court and particularly on a grass court has created.”
Bolton continued, “One can only imagine what that would be like at the Championships. The wildcard committee will formally make their decisions next week and we’ll be communicating those, but she has certainly created a fantastic buzz and that’s exciting for the sport.”
Williams' return for her first match in 1,375 days had caught the attention of the sports world after her four years in retirement. She said her comeback was motivated by a wish to play in front of her young daughters, Olympia and Adira. They were at the court to see their mother win on Tuesday.
Her decision to play competitively again, after losing to Ajla Tomljanovic at the 2022 US Open, raised questions about whether it was a good idea. But in Tuesday’s doubles match, it seemed like she had never been away. Williams showed her famous powerful serve and strong ground strokes, thrilling the crowd.
Still, she was not entirely happy with her first victory since beating then world number two Anett Kontaveit in the second round of the 2022 US Open. “Oh my god! What do you think? A C minus?” she said when asked to rate her performance. “All the elements, considering coming back on grass is probably not the easiest surface. On the grass, four years… Overall I think it was decent.”
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