Relive Serena Williams’ first tennis match in nearly four years with live coverage from The Athletic
Queen’s Club, LONDON — “The game just hasn’t been the same without her,” Sarah, one of Serena Williams‘ super fans, said Tuesday. She had traveled over from Northern Ireland to watch Williams’ return to tennis as a wild card in the women’s doubles at Queen’s, the prestigious warm-up for Wimbledon.
Sarah — and countless fans, in-person in and around the world — got to see Williams’ first match in 1,375 days.
The 44-year-old, 23-time Grand Slam singles champion and 14-time Grand Slam women’s doubles champion united with Victoria Mboko, against No. 3 seeds Erin Routliffe of New Zealand and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the U.S., for a stunning 7-6(2), 6-2 win.
Sarah, who was at Williams final singles match at the US Open in 2022, watched Williams play at Wimbledon 14 years in a row and is the owner of a smashed Wilson racket from her third-round match against Laura Robson, now this tournament’s director, in 2016.
There were no smashed rackets Tuesday, as Williams eased into the match by connecting with a couple of swinging backhand volleys. When she came to serve, she started around 93 mph, but quickly ramped up to 113, cutting through one of the smoothest motions the sport has ever seen.
There was a familiar grunt as Williams won her first point back. It was a shot across Routliffe that said: “I’m back” as it whizzed crosscourt. When the chair umpire announced: “Serena Williams to serve” in the second game, the giddiness went up a level.
There were glimpses of that imperious champion throughout the match too. Like when Williams missed the opportunity to go 4-1 up in the first set with a forehand that went wide. On the next point she hit a powerful drop shot to make it happen.
One of the biggest cheers from the crowd was Williams’ winner to go 5-4 up in the first set. She tracked down an overhead smash and flicked a backhand inside the backline to take the game. The noise when Williams and Mboko won the first set by tiebreak, after 54 minutes, was rapturous.
“I had so much fun playing with Vicky. She really was able to hold up the team and play big on the big points, and I could really rely on her,” Williams said in her on-court interview.
“It just felt so natural playing with her, so it was actually really fun.”
When it was announced on June 1 that Williams was set to play, it had her fans scrambling to be in London this week. Sarah, who faced a race to catch her flight home from Stansted at 10 p.m. Tuesday, knew she had to be there to witness history. To so many, this feels like a second chance to get to savor a legend, who most would consider the greatest player of all time.
On Tuesday in London it was the revival of “Rena’s Army.” They created a buzz as early as Sunday, as Williams practiced for an hour-and-a-half alongside Mboko, but that feeling was ramped up two days later as she trained on the court next to Mboko, who instead practiced with world No. 2 women’s singles player Elena Rybakina.
There was a sweet moment as Mboko finished her practice, with Williams in the zone, Mboko had a chat with Olympia Ohanian, Williams’ eight-year-old daughter. Mboko is 11 years older than Olympia and 25 years younger than Williams, who said this return was as much for herself as it was for her daughters to see her play.
Olympia, dressed in a matching lilac-pink coloured shirt as her mother, had a camera and was taking photographs of Williams as she took advice from coaches Jarmere Jenkins and Rennae Stubbs.
Fans watched in five-minute slots before being moved on. Many, including Sarah, raced around to join the queue in the hope of five minutes more. Sarah’s reward, she said, was a wave from Williams who eventually made a sharp exit as fans waited for her wherever they could find a space to.
When match-time came, fans with seats inside the temporary grandstands of the Andy Murray Arena, got 90 minutes of Williams in action. They cheered in disbelief, as much as support, when Williams and Mboko walked out onto the court. Olympia and Williams’ youngest daughter, Adira, joined in, sat alongside their father Alexis Ohanian. The Reddit founder was sporting a Chelsea Women t-shirt having become a stakeholder of the club last May.
At every interval Mboko was smiling with Williams as they re-hydrated and talked tennis. Mboko had been happy to focus on her singles game but when Williams texted, she immediately replied. As Williams served for the match — and won it with a sequence of two stunning aces, followed by an unreturned serve — it validated the decision to pick Mboko by Williams, who could have chosen almost anyone.
“It’s such a privilege to play beside you … We really did that out there,” Mboko said in her on-court interview.
Fans got more than they bargained for at Queen’s, a win in straight sets and the return of the one they call the GOAT. Whether Williams wins again this week or not, they have their champion back — and Mboko has been crucial to it all.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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