United States' Serena Williams during a practice session on day three of the Queen's Club tennis championships in London, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (Ben Whitley/PA via AP)

By The Canadian Press

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

Jun 11, 2026 | 5:34 AM

LONDON (AP) — 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.

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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 she was “evolving” away from tennis rather than “retiring.”

With files from The Canadian Press

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This story has been corrected to say Mboko was injured in the last 16 of the singles, not the last 32

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

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by The Canadian Press

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

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