After nearly four years away from professional tennis, Serena Williams is back in the winner’s circle.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion made a successful return at Queen’s Club, teaming up with Victoria Mboko to defeat Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe 7-6(2), 6-2 in the doubles draw.
This is her first professional match since the 2022 US Open and her first victory in 1,376 days.
While fans celebrated Serena’s winning return, the pair admitted afterwards that they saw plenty of room for improvement.
“Well, we had a lot of fun. We feel like there’s room for improvement,” Serena said with a laugh.
Mboko agreed.
“There were so many times in the match where we were kinda like… this could be so much better.”
Serena then joked about some of the mistakes they made during the match.
“Yeah, or ugh, this is embarrassing… I missed that, oh my God.”
Mboko revealed the pair were constantly critiquing themselves throughout the contest.
“It was a vibe and it was also just us being realistic a little bit. Say like, she missed two returns or I missed two returns… we’d be like, ‘Damn, we suck.’”
Despite the self-criticism, Serena was quick to praise her young partner.
“I think Vicky is doing great,” she said. “I need to make some returns next match. I didn’t miss one in practice. But ugh, that was a little embarrassing out there.”
“The good news is I can do better.”
After 1,376 days away from professional competition, she is back on court, back in front of fans, and back in the winner’s circle.
That is a pretty good way to start a comeback.
