The queen returns: Serena Williams stuns tennis with winning comeback at Queen’s
The Mt Kenya Times 
Serena Williams
Four years after walking away, the 23-time Grand Slam champion is back on grass — and winning
By Norman Mwale
She said nothing when she left. On Tuesday, she let her racket do the talking.
Serena Williams, 44, made a winning return to professional tennis at the HSBC Championships, Queen’s Club, partnering Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko to defeat third seeds Erin Routliffe and Nicole Melichar-Martinez 7-6 (7/2), 6-2 in the first round of doubles. It was her first competitive match since the 2022 US Open — and she made it look almost routine.
The announcement had come a day earlier, Queen’s Club’s social media breaking the news with a crown emoji: “THE QUEEN RETURNS.” Williams, who accepted a wild card into the doubles draw, described the decision as a “pretty 11th-hour commitment.” The tennis world, characteristically, stopped everything and paid attention.
Her choice of partner was inspired. Mboko, 19 and ranked world No. 9, is among the most exciting young talents on the WTA Tour. The pair are separated by 26 years — Williams won her first Grand Slam in 1999, seven years before Mboko was born — yet under the west London sun, that gap dissolved entirely. Williams’ serve remained heavy, her court instincts razor-sharp. Mboko’s fearless returning supplied the perfect foil. They played like a team that had shared locker rooms for years.
Williams had been eligible to return since February, having completed her six-month term in the anti-doping testing pool. She chose the British grass-court season deliberately. “Queen’s Club feels like the perfect place to begin this next chapter,” she said — offering warmth, but no promises.
On singles, she was characteristically cryptic. “Right now it is no,” she told reporters. “I cannot say yes, I cannot say no.” That ambiguity, of course, is precisely what makes the next fortnight so compelling.
Queen’s concludes on 14 June. Wimbledon begins on 29 June. Williams holds a doubles wild card for the Berlin Tennis Open, starting 15 June — the same week the first Wimbledon wild cards are expected. The Eastern Herald framed it neatly: Williams may be using Queen’s the way she once used Eastbourne — as a door left slightly ajar, with Wimbledon visible through the gap.
There is also the matter of Venus. Her sister, 45, remains active on tour. Together they hold 14 Grand Slam doubles titles. Williams hinted the door on that partnership has not closed either.
For now, though, the story belongs to Queen’s Club: a comeback, a convincing win, and a reminder that greatness does not retire — it reloads.
The queen is back. And she is winning.
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