{"id":255903,"date":"2026-06-05T00:25:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T00:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/255903\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T00:25:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T00:25:23","slug":"serena-williams-shares-first-look-at-queens-club-while-long-awaited-comeback-at-44-draws-closer-international-sports-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/255903\/","title":{"rendered":"Serena Williams shares first look at Queen\u2019s Club while long awaited comeback at 44 draws closer | International Sports News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SerenaSerena Williams shares first look at Queen\u2019s Club while long awaited comeback at 44 draws closer (Image via Getty) Serena Williams is officially back on a tennis court, and fans are already excited about what comes next. The 23-time Grand Slam champion was seen at Queen\u2019s Club in London on Thursday as she prepared for her first tournament since stepping away from professional tennis in 2022. The 44-year-old American shocked the sports world last week when she announced her return to competition after nearly four years away from the tour.Williams will play women\u2019s doubles at next week\u2019s HSBC Championships at Queen\u2019s Club. She has received a wildcard entry and will team up with Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko. Their appearance could also be the first step toward a possible return to Wimbledon, which begins on June 29.Before practice, Williams and Mboko posed for photos on the grass courts. Mboko later shared her excitement on social media, writing: \u201cThe Queen is back. An honor to share the court with one of the greatest athletes of all time this week. Even more excited to play doubles together! Tennis is pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Serena Williams and Victoria Mboko begin Queen\u2019s Club partnership as tennis stars react to comeback<\/p>\n

The return marks a new chapter for Williams, who has not played a competitive match since losing in the third round of the 2022 US Open. At that time, she avoided using the word retirement and instead said she was \u201cevolving away\u201d from tennis.When she announced her comeback last week, Williams shared a video of herself on court while notifications appeared on her phone. The clip included the message: \u201cGuess everybody heard the news.\u201dIn a statement released through tournament organizers, Williams said: \u201cQueen\u2019s Club feels like the perfect place to begin this next chapter.\u201dShe added: \u201cGrass has given me some of the most meaningful moments of my career, and I\u2019m excited to be back competing on one of the sport\u2019s most iconic stages.\u201dThe comeback has already drawn reactions from some of the biggest names in tennis. Speaking at the French Open, Naomi Osaka said: \u201cI don\u2019t really care about tennis. I think it\u2019s good for me. I\u2019ll be very entertained.\u201dOsaka continued: \u201cI think it will bring people to watch tennis, which she always does bring an audience with her. So I think it\u2019s good.\u201dShe also added: \u201cI\u2019m going to be tuned into the first match, for sure. I think a lot of people are. Everyone knows Serena and Venus were my role models growing up, so it\u2019s going to be cool to see her on the grounds again.\u201dMeanwhile, Coco Gauff said: \u201cI did say one of my biggest regrets was not being able to play her.\u201dGauff added: \u201cEverybody has been hearing rumours and stuff. So, if they are true, I guess we\u2019ll find out in a couple days based off the rumours. We\u2019ll see, but I think it would be cool for this sport to have a legend back playing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Serena Williams shares first look at Queen\u2019s Club while long awaited comeback at 44 draws closer (Image via…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[99692,98459,99694,9,24,63,21130,122,124,123,96489,99693,99691,79755,97811],"class_list":["post-255903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-23-time-grand-slam-champion","tag-hsbc-championships","tag-naomi-osaka-on-serena","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens-club","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-serena-williams-comeback","tag-tennis-news","tag-tennis-return","tag-victoria-mboko","tag-womens-doubles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255903","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=255903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}