{"id":264028,"date":"2026-06-12T01:39:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T01:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/264028\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T01:39:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T01:39:23","slug":"serenas-queens-club-comeback-ends-as-injured-mboko-withdraws-tennis-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/264028\/","title":{"rendered":"Serena\u2019s Queen\u2019s Club Comeback Ends as Injured Mboko Withdraws \u2013 Tennis Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, June 11, 2026<br \/>Photo credit: Serena Williams Instagram<\/p>\n<p>Serena Williams\u2019 Queen\u2019s Club comeback was cut short.<\/p>\n<p>Montreal champion Victoria Mboko, who partnered 44-year-old Serena to a 7-6(2), 6-2 win over third seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe in their Queen\u2019s Club opening doubles match on Tuesday officially withdrew from the HSBC Championships today due to injury.<\/p>\n<p>The 19-year-old Mboko retired with an apparent knee injury after tumbling to the court while trailing Karolina Pliskova, 2-6, 4-3 at the HSBC Championships yesterday.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennisexpress.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-lazyloaded=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"610\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/610X150-Slide_PRO-PLAYER_5-21-26.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-65402\"  data-\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Returning serve against Pliskova in the second set yesterday, Mboko was moving right when the former No. 1 hit a drive behind her. Trying to change direction, Mboko slipped into a split on the Queen\u2019s Club grass, flung her Wilson racquet behind her and immediately clutched at her left knee in pain.<\/p>\n<p>The physio helped a tearful Mboko to her courtside seat where she sat for a few moments appearing to press tears from her eyes with her towel. Mboko retired moments later telling Pliskova \u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wimbledon starts on June 29th. Mboko\u2019s status is uncertain at this point.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Williams wished Mboko a speedy recovery in an Instagram post.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat a fun and memorable week at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/hsbcchampionships\/?hl=en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@hsbcchampionships<\/a>. Thank you to everyone who made it so special,\u201d Williams posted. \u201cWishing you a speedy recovery,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/vickymboko\/?hl=en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@vickymboko<\/a>. Can\u2019t wait to see you back on court.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Three years, nine months and six days after her loss to Ajla Tomljanovic in her last pro match at the 2022 US Open, Serena returned before a completely packed Andy Murray Arena and, perhaps surprisingly, looked a lot like the Serena Williams we all recall.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Williams moves on to the grass of Berlin, where she\u2019s been given a doubles wild card and is expected to partner former French Open finalist Karolina Muchova in doubles.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, June 11, 2026Photo credit: Serena Williams Instagram Serena Williams\u2019 Queen\u2019s Club comeback was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-264028","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"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264028","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=264028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}