Serena Williams of the United States, celebrates with playing partner Victoria Mboko of Canada after defeating Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand during their first-round doubles match at the Queen's Club tennis championships in London on Tuesday.Alberto Pezzali/The Canadian Press
Tennis legend Serena Williams made a triumphant return to the courts on Tuesday, with a big assist from Canadian rising star Victoria Mboko.
The 44-year-old Williams and the 19-year-old Mboko teamed up to beat New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States 7-6 (2) 6-2 in a doubles first-round match at the HSBC Championships grass-court tennis tournament.
Williams received a rousing ovation from the fans at The Queen’s Club in West London when she took the court for her first competitive match in over four years.
The 23-time singles Grand Slam champion, who also won 14 major doubles titles with her sister Venus, served for the match and set up match point with an ace.
“I feel very honoured to play with Serena,” Mboko said in an on-court interview, standing next to Williams. “I had a lot of fun, if anything. We really did that out there. I’m so happy to be playing beside you. And we’re going for more.”
Mboko, who has already entered the top 10 in the rankings at No. 9, made an impression on her legendary partner.
“It was so fun. I had so much fun playing with Victoria,” Williams said. “She really was able to hold up the team and really play big on the big points. I could really rely on her. We’ve never played together, but it just felt so natural playing with her.”
Routliffe, who has played with several partners this year after she and Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski ended their successful partnership after last season, was seeded third with Melichar-Martinez at Queen’s Club.
Williams and Mboko, from Toronto, Ont., will next face Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., and Germany’s Laura Siegemund, who advanced to the doubles second round with a 6-2, 2-6, 11-9 win over Russia’s Alexandra Panova and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands.
Serena Williams of the United States and Victoria Mboko of Canada interact while playing against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand during their women's doubles first round match on Day 2 of the HSBC Championships at The Queen's Club on Tuesday in London, England.Luke Walker/Getty Images
Fernandez formed a fan-favourite duo with Venus Williams last year, and the pair made a run to the U.S. Open quarter-finals.
Earlier, Fernandez was eliminated from singles competition with a 3-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5 loss to Britain’s Katie Boulter.
Fernandez, the eighth seed at The Queen’s Club in West London, was up a set and tied 3-3 in the second when the match was suspended Monday night due to darkness.
Boulter shook off the disruption when the match resumed to win a competitive second set.
Fernandez fought back from a break down in the third set, but her service game faltered again with the set tied 5-5 as Boulter regained the lead. The Briton then served out for the win.
Boulter will next face Romania’s Jaqueline Cristian at the WTA 500 event.
It was the first meeting between the players in a WTA Tour main draw. Boulter defeated Fernandez in qualifying at the 2018 Canadian Open in Montreal, and Fernandez returned the favour in qualifying at the 2023 Citi Open in Washington.
Defending champ Diallo falls in Libema Open opener
Canadian Gabriel Diallo, the defending champion, dropped his opening match at the Libema Open grass-court tournament Tuesday, falling 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 to France’s Adrian Mannarino.
Diallo fired seven aces and won 73 per cent of his first- serve points, but Mannarino converted four of nine break-point chances in the two-hour, 30-minute match.
Diallo fell to 6-13 on the season and is projected to slide 30 spots to No. 84 in the ATP live rankings after failing to defend the title he won last year.
The Montreal native remains alive in doubles, where he and Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz advanced to the quarter-finals with a 3-6, 6-4, 14-12 victory over India’s Yuki Bhambri and Australia’s Matthew Ebden.
An all-Canadian pairing of Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov, of Richmond Hill, Ont., was scheduled to open its doubles campaign later Tuesday against Petr Nouza of the Czech Republic and Austria’s Niki Oberleitner.
Auger-Aliassime, the top seed in the men’s draw, will play his first singles match Wednesday against the winner of Tuesday’s match between Hurkacz and Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics.