Serena Williams Victorious In Doubles Match After Taking Nearly A Year Off

Serena Williams returned to the tennis court Tuesday after nearly a year away from the sport she has dominated for more than 20 years.

Serena, now a 40-year-old mom who happens to have 23 Grand Slam singles titles, looked rusty to start. Her movement was less than ideal at times. But when the match was hanging in the balance, Williams was the most composed person on the court as she and partner Ons Jabeur prevailed over Sara Sorribes Tormo and Marie Bouzková, 2-6, 6-3, 13-11, at Eastbourne.

They advanced to Wednesday’s quarterfinals against Shuko Aoyama and Chan Hao-ching (11:50 a.m. ET, Tennis Channel).

Williams opted to return in doubles only at Eastbourne ahead of the start next week of Wimbledon, the last tournament she played in 2021 and where she suffered a leg injury that kept her out the rest of the year. The draw for Wimbledon is Friday and nobody in the women’s game will want to see an unseeded Serena in their section of the draw.

“Oh my God, it was so fun to play with Ons,” Serena said at Eastbourne. “It was great, we had a lot of fun. Our opponents played amazing, we were just trying to stay in there after the first set.”

It was an impressive win given that Sorribes Tormo is ranked 48 in the world in doubles and Bouzková 32. Serena, now No. 1204 in the world in singles, is unranked in doubles but has 14 career Grand Slam doubles titles. Jabeur is ranked 3 in singles, but 1658 in doubles, and said she “couldn’t believe” that Serena chose to partner with her. Jabeur played doubles last week in Berlin with Garbine Muguruza to practice.

“It was so much fun. I was a little bit nervous before playing with such a legend,” Jabeur said. “But she made me really good on the court and even when I made mistakes, she kept encouraging me so thank you for that.”

“Of course, we got this,” Serena said.

Williams looked rusty to start and her movement was lacking. Still as the match wore on, her footwork and hands improved and she made several nice gets and putaways at the net, even as at least one lob winner sailed over her head. Her serve, the most dominant weapon in her arsenal, reached 114-mph as she mixed in kick serves to change the pace.

“In order to play well at Wimbledon, I think this was a very important match to win, to get through, and to get at least one more match because we saw that in each game that went by, each service game that Serena had to come up with a hold, she got better,” former world No. 1 Tracy Austin said on Tennis Channel.

“Fifty-one weeks is a long time to be away. As a tennis player, if you’re off four weeks, you feel rust. And at 40, it doesn’t become any easier. So I think this was important. And for Ons, she just needs more time out on court.”

Now Williams and Jabeur will get at least one more doubles match before they both play singles at Wimbledon. The draw comes out Friday and everyone will wait to see where Serena lands.

“We’re going to watch that with bated breath because as an unseeded player, that’s going to be very, very important,” Austin said.