After more than two years away from competitive tennis, 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams is gearing up for a stunning return to action, set to compete in women’s doubles at the Queen’s Club Championship with 19-year-old Canadian rising star Victoria Mboko.
The 44-year-old American legend stepped onto the grass practice courts at the west London venue alongside Mboko on Thursday, kicking off preparations for next week’s Wimbledon warm-up tournament. Mboko, the 2025 WTA Newcomer of the Year, later shared a photo of the pair on her Instagram page, showering Williams with praise ahead of their tournament debut.
Calling Williams the “Queen” of tennis, Mboko wrote that sharing a court with one of the greatest athletes of all time is a profound honor, adding that she is extra excited to compete alongside Williams and noting how special the sport of tennis is. The age gap between the new doubles partners is 25 years: Mboko was born decades after Williams launched her legendary professional career.
Williams originally stepped away from competitive tennis following the 2022 US Open, where widespread coverage framed the exit as a retirement. But the icon never explicitly used the term “retirement,” instead describing her exit as “evolving away” from the sport to focus on other life chapters, including raising her two young children with husband Alexis Ohanian. For months, tennis fans and analysts have speculated about a potential return, and Williams officially confirmed her comeback in a public announcement earlier this week.
“Queen’s Club feels like the perfect place to begin this next chapter,” Williams said in her statement, adding that grass courts have produced some of the most meaningful moments of her decorated career, and she is eager to compete again on one of the sport’s most iconic stages. Williams has claimed seven Wimbledon singles titles over her career, making the grass surface a fitting venue for her return.
Williams and Mboko received a wildcard entry into the 16-team Queen’s Club women’s doubles draw, securing their spot in the main tournament draw. While Williams is best known for her record-breaking singles career, she boasts an equally impressive resume in doubles: she holds a career 192-35 win-loss record and claimed 22 of her 23 career doubles titles alongside her sister, Venus Williams. The iconic Williams sisters pair won all 14 Grand Slam doubles finals they competed in, a record that remains unmatched in modern tennis.
With the Wimbledon Championships set to kick off on June 29, Williams has not yet revealed whether her comeback will include entering the singles draw at the sport’s most prestigious grass court tournament. Her last Grand Slam singles title came at the 2017 Australian Open, where she won the championship while pregnant with her first child.