{"id":255450,"date":"2026-06-04T17:41:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T17:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/255450\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T17:41:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T17:41:44","slug":"shocking-rejection-big-name-champ-says-no-to-serena-williams-doubles-bid-just-days-before-queens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/255450\/","title":{"rendered":"Shocking rejection: Big-name champ says no to Serena Williams\u2019 doubles bid just days before Queen\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It appears Serena Williams\u2019s initial offer for her return to doubles on the WTA Tour wasn\u2019t accepted, though she\u2019s still set for an exciting comeback.<\/p>\n<p>She announced the Queen\u2019s Club Championships, marking nearly four years since her last professional match at the US Open.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>This time, she\u2019ll be teaming up with Victoria Mboko. The Canadian teenager was just 16 when Williams played what many thought would be her final match.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s already plenty of anticipation around their partnership. Still, it turns out that Williams may not have been Mboko\u2019s first option for a doubles partner.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Photo by Joe Raedle\/Getty Images\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"567\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/89f69d7d1fb3fcbe0d071252b2c2456e.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photo by Joe Raedle\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Katerina Siniakova passed on the chance to play doubles with Serena Williams<\/p>\n<p>This was revealed by Katerina Siniakova, an 11-time Grand Slam doubles champion and the current world number one, during Roland Garros this year.<\/p>\n<p>Siniakova, who is partnered with Taylor Townsend, may be on the verge of winning a 12th major title at Roland Garros. She was asked about Williams\u2019 comeback after reaching the semifinals in Paris.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The Czech confirmed that she had been approached by Williams to play doubles together at Queen\u2019s but explained that she had to decline due to needing rest after Roland Garros. However, she didn\u2019t rule out playing together in the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m proud that I had the honour of receiving a message from her,\u201d said Siniakova, as reported by Tenisovysvet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately, I won\u2019t be playing the week she returns. I had a really hard time deciding whether to play with such a legend or rest a bit. I think it\u2019s great for tennis that she\u2019s back. We\u2019ll see what form she\u2019s in, but seeing her back is wow.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a bit of a funny story. For me, it\u2019s great just to have the message and her number. If it works out another time, I\u2019ll be very happy. It would be an honour to play with her. I was terribly sorry that it turned out like this, but it couldn\u2019t be combined. Then I\u2019m in the qualifiers in Berlin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Recapping Serena Williams\u2019 last doubles match<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been almost four years since Williams last played a professional match, with her final appearance coming in a third-round loss to Ajla Tomljanovic at the US Open.<\/p>\n<p>That same tournament was also where she played her final doubles match, teaming up once again with her sister Venus.<\/p>\n<p>The duo had won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles together, but at the 2022 US Open, they were defeated in the first round for the first time since 1997. They lost in straight sets to Czech pair Linda Noskova and Lucie Hradecka.<\/p>\n<p>Looking ahead to Queen\u2019s, Serena will be partnering Mboko as she returns to the WTA Tour. The event gets underway on Monday, June 8.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>There is no word yet on whether the sisters will reunite soon. Venus is currently set to play alongside Alexandra Eala at the Bad Homburg Open ahead of Wimbledon.<\/p>\n<p>Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It appears Serena Williams\u2019s initial offer for her return to doubles on the WTA Tour wasn\u2019t accepted, though&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[99516,99517,99519,99515,9,24,63,59537,122,124,123,91451,82657,99518,79755],"class_list":["post-255450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-conrad-williams","tag-doubles-match","tag-final-match","tag-katerina-siniakova","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens-club-championships","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-roland-garros","tag-serena-williams","tag-taylor-townsend","tag-victoria-mboko"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}