It was not long at all before Serena Williams has had to change doubles partners. At Queen’s this past week Williams teamed up with young Canadian phenom Victoria Mboko. Williams and Mboko won their first round doubles match, but the duo could not play their second round match at Queen’s because Mboko suffered a knee injury in her singles match against Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic. The knee injury is so severe for Mboko (specifically an injured medial collateral ligament), that it is forcing her to miss Wimbledon.
So starting next week, Williams will be playing with 2023 French Open finalist Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic in Berlin. Now, Muchova has a great singles resume (has a previous ranking as high as eighth in the world, and is currently 11th), but Muchova has a respectable doubles resume too. She reached the semifinals of the 2024 Olympic women’s doubles tournament in Paris with countrywoman Linda Noskova, before losing 6-3, 6-2 to the Italian duo of Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini.
Muchova also teamed up with 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in Billie Jean King Cup qualifying action in 2022. Muchova and Vondrousova defeated Harriet Dart and Katie Swan of Great Britain, 6-1, 7-5 in Prague.
Having Williams back in tennis on the WTA Tour is very exciting. Her presence is giving women’s doubles a significant boost, when women’s doubles has been under the radar for years. It will be very interesting if Williams will be competing in Wimbledon (in either singles or doubles) at age 44.
