Mboko's knee injury forces withdrawal from Queen's Club doubles with Williams

United States' Serena Williams, right, high-fives her doubles partner Victoria Mboko, of Canada, during a match against Erin Routliffe and Nicole Melichar-Martinez at the HSBC Championships tennis tournament at The Queen's Club, Tuesday, June 9, 2026, in London. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)

LONDON — Serena Williams’ much-hyped comeback to professional tennis at the Queen’s Club lasted just one match.

The 44-year-old Williams’ doubles partner, 19-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko, was forced to withdraw from the draw on Thursday because of a knee injury she sustained in a singles match against Karolina Pliskova in the last 16 on Wednesday.

Mboko, from Burlington, Ont., retired from the match after grabbing her left knee while trying to break serve in the second set. She later told a physiotherapist there was “no stability right now” in the knee.

In her first professional match since the 2022 U.S. Open, Williams teamed up with Mboko to beat the third-seeded duo of Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe 7-6 (2), 6-2 at the grass-court event on Tuesday.

They were scheduled to face Leylah Fernandez, of Laval, Que., and Laura Siegemund in Thursday’s quarterfinals.

Fernandez and Siegemund advanced to the semifinals, where they will face either the second-seeded duo of Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani or the American team of Iva Jovic and McCartney Kessler.

Williams is set to play doubles at the Berlin Open in Germany next week. Her partner has yet to be announced, though British newspaper The Times of London reported it was Karolina Muchova.

Williams won 23 Grand Slam singles titles — including seven at Wimbledon — before stepping away from the game, saying at the time

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With files from The Canadian Press

The Associated Press