LONDON, June 11 – The tennis comeback of Serena Williams faced an unexpected halt Thursday when her doubles teammate Victoria Mboko pulled out of the Queen’s Club WTA tournament due to a knee injury.
Following an absence of almost four years, the 44-year-old tennis legend from America teamed up with the Canadian teenager Mboko to defeat Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe before a packed audience on Tuesday.
The duo was set to face Canada’s Leylah Fernandez and Germany’s Laura Siegemund in their quarter-final match, but the 19-year-old Mboko was forced to pull out after suffering a painful fall during her individual match against Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova on Wednesday.
Mboko was unable to finish that singles contest and exited the court limping and visibly emotional.
The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Williams plans to advance her return to professional tennis in Berlin next week and may pursue a wildcard entry for the Wimbledon championships.
