LONDON \u2013 After nearly four years away from professional tennis, Serena Williams showed she still has plenty of power to her game as she made a winning return at Queen\u2019s Club on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The 44-year-old Williams hit service winners of up to 120 mph and some ferocious winners as she teamed up with 19-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko<\/a> to win their opening doubles match at the Queen\u2019s Club grass-court tournament.<\/p>\n Williams and Mboko beat third-seeded duo Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe 7-6 (2), 6-2 in Williams\u2019 first professional match since the 2022 U.S. Open. They next face Leylah Fernandez and Laura Siegemund in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n As if to punctuate that she\u2019s back, Williams served out the first-round match with two aces followed by a service winner. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was so fun. I had so much fun playing with Victoria,\u201d Williams said in an on-court interview. \u201cWe\u2019ve never played together but it just felt so natural playing with her.\u201d <\/p>\n Later, though, Williams gave herself a modest grade in her post-match news conference. <\/p>\n \u201cA C-minus,\u201d Williams said, before cutting herself some slack. \u201cWith all the elements, considering coming back on grass is probably not the easiest surface. … Grass, four years. Overall, I think it was decent.\u201d <\/p>\n Perhaps more than decent, given the quality of the opposition. Routliffe is a two-time U.S. Open champion in doubles and Melichar-Martinez has made the doubles final at both Flushing Meadows and Wimbledon.<\/p>\n Sure, Williams’ performance was uneven, and at times it looked like she may have lost half a step. But it was clear she can still compete at a high level. <\/p>\n Even Williams seemed to be surprised at the quality of her rapid-reaction backhand winner at 4-4 in the first set, laughing as she high-fived Mboko.<\/p>\n Her teenage partner was clearly impressed.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought she was moving great,\u201d said Mboko, one of the rising stars on the WTA tour who is already ranked No. 9 in singles. \u201cThere was that one shot you hit, remember, you were on the run, on the backhand, and I was like, \u2018Oh, my gosh, she\u2019s got it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The crowd loved it too, from the moment Williams stepped onto the court on a sunny but windy afternoon.<\/p>\n Williams received a standing ovation as she made her entrance, by far the loudest cheer of the day at the Andy Murray Arena, even from a crowd that had earlier watched British players Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter secure wins in the singles tournament at the HSBC Championships. <\/p>\n It was Williams\u2019 first appearance at Queen\u2019s Club, which is nestled among residential blocks near Hammersmith in west London. The club, which held its first championships in 1881, did not stage a women\u2019s tournament for more than 50 years before the WTA tour returned to the venue in 2025. <\/p>\n \u2018Really special\u2019<\/p>\n The men\u2019s tournament, which starts next week, has long been one of the main grass-court warmup events for Wimbledon and counts Carlos Alcaraz, Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal, Pete Sampras, Boris Becker and John McEnroe among its former winners. <\/p>\n \u201cI never got to play here, it was always just the men,\u201d Williams said. \u201cIt felt really special to play some place so iconic.\u201d<\/p>\n Aside from a sell-out crowd, Williams also drew some celebrity faces to Queen’s Club. Her friend Lindsey Vonn, the skiing star whose own comeback ended in a crash at the Milan Cortina Olympics, watched on from one of the balconies. <\/p>\n Williams’ two daughters, Olympia and Adira, were also in attendance. For Adira, who was born in 2023, it was the first time watching her mother play a match. <\/p>\n Not that their response to the win was overly enthusiastic, according to Williams. <\/p>\n \u201cAdira wanted to go to the toy store, and Olympia wanted to know what was for dinner,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n No Wimbledon decision yet<\/p>\n Williams is also set to play doubles at the Berlin Open in Germany next week. But even after a winning return, she remains undecided when it comes to whether to extend her comeback to Wimbledon, which starts June 29. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just a day at a time,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI still have a little time to decide, and they have been great about giving me that space and time to decide.\u201d<\/p>\n