After an almost four-year break that included the birth of her second child, Serena Williams returns to competitive tennis at the age of 44. Her first tournament back will be next week’s HSBC Championships, a WTA 500 grass-court event held at Queen’s Club in London, where she will play doubles.
While tournament organizers have yet to officially announce her doubles partner, multiple reports indicate that young Canadian star Victoria Mboko will join her on court. The prospect of the sport’s most decorated modern champion teaming up with one of its brightest young talents has already generated considerable excitement ahead of the grass-court season.
Speculation surrounding Williams’ return has been building for months. Although she previously dismissed suggestions that she was planning a comeback, attention intensified after her name resurfaced in tennis’ anti-doping testing program and later appeared on the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s list of reinstated players earlier this year.
On Monday, Williams posted a short video of herself walking onto a tennis court, accompanied by the message: “Guess everybody heard the news,” while her caption teased: “Good news travels fast.”
Mboko stopped short of confirming the reported doubles partnership with Williams, saying any announcement should come from the 23-time Grand Slam champion herself. “I feel like it’s up to her to announce that,” Mboko said when asked about the reports a few days ago. “Serena and I have stayed in touch, which is really nice because I really look up to her. The fact that she even knows me is very exciting.”
Williams’ return will undoubtedly be one of the biggest storylines of the summer, with fans eager to see whether the legendary American can once again make her presence felt on the game’s biggest stages. (source: BBC)