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Victoria Mboko suffered a nasty fall at Queen\u2019s on Wednesday Credit: Getty<\/p>\n
Mboko, 19, partnered Serena Williams in the 44-year-old\u2019s comeback on Tuesday Credit: Getty<\/p>\n
Williams<\/a>, 44, handpicked Mboko to be her partner<\/a> for her return to professional tennis following nearly four years of retirement.<\/p>\n The pair got off to a brilliant start on Tuesday, beating No3 seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe 7-6 6-2 in front of a packed Andy Murray Arena crowd in West London.<\/p>\n Mboko launched her singles campaign on Wednesday at the Queen\u2019s Club, facing veteran former Wimbledon finalist Karolina Pliskova.<\/p>\n Trailing 6-2 3-4, the teenage rising star carved out three break points.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t CRUEL BLOW<\/p>\n Serena Williams’ Queen’s comeback all but over as partner Mboko forced to retire<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n Mboko is checked by the chair umpire and opponent Karolina Pliskova Credit: Getty<\/p>\n Victoria Mboko was devastated following her fall at Queen\u2019s Credit: Shutterstock Editorial<\/p>\n As Pliskova fired a winner past her on the third, Mboko slipped while trying to change direction behind the baseline.<\/p>\n The horrible moment drew a gasp from the near-capacity crowd, with the chair umpire and Pliskova both rushing over to check on Mboko.<\/p>\n After around a minute she gingerly got to her feet and hobbled over to her chair.<\/p>\n Following a quick consultation with doctors, during which Mboko appeared to cry into her towel, the decision was made to retire from the match with a left knee injury.<\/p>\n Mboko receives a medical check on court Credit: PA<\/p>\n The teenager had been trailing Karolina Pliskova on Andy Murray Arena Credit: Getty<\/p>\n Williams and Mboko had been due to take on Leylah Fernandez and Laura Siegemund last on Andy Murray Arena later today.<\/p>\n Mboko did not immediately withdraw from the doubles event, instead heading for scans.<\/p>\n Having left it overnight, the world No9 pulled the plug this morning.<\/p>\n Rules dictate that an injured doubles player cannot be replaced once the draw has been made, meaning that Williams and Mboko were forced to pull out as a team \u2013 with Fernandez and Siegemund straight through to the next round.<\/p>\n Williams, 44, was on the practice court at Queen\u2019s on Wednesday Credit: Shutterstock Editorial<\/p>\n Williams\u2019 return alongside Mboko drew in a capacity crowd Credit: Shutterstock Editorial<\/p>\n Williams went on to post a picture of herself with Mboko during Tuesday\u2019s match to her Instagram story.<\/p>\n Tagging her doubles partner, captioned it: \u201cYou\u2019re an incredible talent, and you\u2019ll be back out there in no time.<\/p>\n \u201cWishing you a speedy recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n Mboko reposted the message to her own Instagram story.<\/p>\n Williams is set to return to action in Berlin next week as she mulls over whether to accept a Wimbledon wildcard.<\/p>\n The Times<\/a> report that she will play with former French Open singles finalist Karolina Muchova in Germany.<\/p>\n On her SW19 prospects, Williams said after her match on Tuesday: \u201cIt\u2019s just a day at a time. I still have a little time to decide, and they have been great about giving me that space and time to decide.\u201d<\/p>\n The American icon has remained coy on whether her comeback may extend to the singles court too.<\/p>\n Williams could theoretically accept a singles or doubles wildcard into Eastbourne, should she require a third tune up event before Wimbledon.<\/p>\n She famously played at Devonshire Park<\/a> back in 2022, gracing the leafy seaside town alongside Ons Jabeur<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mboko, meanwhile, is now a major doubt for Wimbledon.<\/p>\n The wonderkid reached the second round at SW19 as a lucky loser last year, but is due to be a top 10 seed this time around following a meteoric rise, should she be able to shake off this knee injury in time.<\/p>\n Stylish Karolina Muchova is set to team up with Williams next week Credit: Getty<\/p>\n Williams played alongside Ons Jabeur at Eastbourne in 2022 Credit: Getty\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SERENA WILLIAMS\u2019 doubles comeback at Queen\u2019s is OVER after her partner Victoria Mboko was forced to withdraw through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123,102051,82657,79755],"class_list":["post-263237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-section-sporttennis","tag-serena-williams","tag-victoria-mboko"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263237","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=263237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781190308_701_RAS-OP-MBOKO-WILLIAMS.jpg\"\/)
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