When Serena Williams announced her plans to step away from tennis in 2022, I always had a gut feeling that she might make a comeback. It was not a matter of if, it was when.
When Williams made her decision to be reinstated as an active player earlier this year, the question was then going to be when would we see one of the greatest women’s tennis players back on the court. The answer was this week. However, Williams’s return was not in singles, but doubles. On Tuesday, Williams teamed up with Canada’s Victoria Mboko, and defeated the third seeds Erin Routliffe of New Zealand and Melanie Melichar-Martinez of the United States 7-6, 6-2 in the first round of Queen’s.
However, Williams and Mboko might be withdrawing from their second round women’s doubles match. That is because Mboko injured her knee in her singles match on Wednesday against Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic and had to withdraw.
We all know about what a great singles player Williams has been over the years. What gets overshadowed a little bit are her doubles accomplishments. Williams in fact has 16 grand slam doubles titles (14 in women’s doubles and two in mixed doubles) and has three Olympic gold medals in women’s doubles with sister Venus.
Now the question is will we see Serena at Wimbledon? Will she play doubles (and with who if Mboko is injured), and will she possibly accept a wildcard? Any way you look at it, Williams’s return to women’s tennis at age 44 has evolved into the game’s biggest story in 2026.
