By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday June 21, 2022
Serena Williams is back in the winner’s circle.
The legendary American brought a collective smile to the tennis world on Tuesday, as she paired with Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur to lock down a 2-6, 6-3, 13-11 victory over Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo to advance to the quarterfinals at the Rothesay International in Eastbourne, UK.
40-year-old Williams took to the doubles court for the first time since pairing with Caroline Wozniacki at Auckland in 2020, and played solidly down the stretch as she and Jabeur edged out the victory in a match tiebreak.
It was Williams first competitive match in either singles or doubles since she left Wimbledon in tears last year, having suffered a hamstring injury in her first-round loss to Aliasksandra Sasnovich.
“It was so fun to play with Ons,” Williams said after the match. “It was great – we had a lot of fun, our opponents played amazing. We were just trying to stay in there after the first set.”
Williams and Jabeur will face Hao-Ching Chan and Shuko Aoyama in the quarterfinals at Eastbourne.
Serena shook off a years’ worth of rust and enjoyed some fine moments on court today – a fine step in the right direction for her singles return, which will happen next week at Wimbledon, where the seven-time champion has taken a wild card into the main draw.
There has also been some great video posted of Serena on the practice court. Here is the legend serving some balls to American Frances Tiafoe: