Serena Williams wins 1st match of comeback after year away

EASTBOURNE (England)

As “What A Feeling” boomed around Devonshire Park, Serena Williams strode onto center court at Eastbourne to a standing ovation for her first competitive tennis match in nearly a year.

Fans were back on the streets again around 90 minutes later to celebrate the win of the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion at Wimbledon’s warmup event on England’s south coast.

Ons Jabeur and Williams were paired to defeat Sara Sorribes Tormo & Marie Bouzkova on Tuesday in the first round. After losing the first set 6-2, Williams and Jabeur won the second 6-3. The match tiebreaker was 13-11 on their third match point.

“I caught some fire behind me,” the 40-year-old Williams said. “I needed that. It was good.”

Williams will now have at most one more competitive match before she can play singles at Wimbledon in wild-card mode. Monday will see the All England Club begin main-draw play.

Williams last saw competitive action in 2021 at the Slam on grass-courts. Williams was playing in round one when she lost her footing, and her right leg buckled. Williams retired from the match.

Since then, she has not participated in any competitive activity and is ranked No. 1,204 in singles, and she wasn’t among the seeded tennis players announced by Wimbledon on Tuesday. Few will be willing to face her when Friday’s draw is made.

“I love tennis and I love playing otherwise I wouldn’t be here but I also love what I do off the court,” Williams said.

Williams, sporting three black patches on her right side, made a slow start in the match with Jabeur. This was her third appearance at Eastbourne. She had previously played in the singles event back in 1998 and 2011.

She served first – her first serve was at 90 mph (145 km/h) and earned her first point after Sorribes Turmo’s reply, which took a long time – and held on to 30.

Williams struggled in the initial set. She was also frustrated by her inability to get low enough to take a shot by Sorribes. Williams finally hit a winner 25 minutes later when her smash flew into North Stand. One spectator was able leave with a souvenir.

Williams’ agility improved markedly in the second set. There were some gasps from the crowd though when Williams ran into the net.

With a backhand winner from baseline, she set up a set point and took the match to tiebreaker with a speedy 102 mph ace.

Williams displayed a desire to dive to the right to make a return volley that could not be returned. This set up one of three match points. The match was won when Sorribes Tormo missed a volley.

“It was so fun to play with Ons,” Williams saidInterview on the court. “It was great. We had a lot fun and our opponents were amazing. We were happy to stay in there.”

The singles saw a huge shock as top-seeded Paula Badosa lost to Jodie Burrage, an American wild card. Anhelina Kalinina defeated third-seeded Maria Sakkari 3-6, 7-5 and 6-4. Fourth-seeded Karolina pliskova, last year’s Wimbledon finalist, was defeated in the final by Katie Boulter of Britain 1-6,6-4,6-4.

Beatriz Haddad Maia, the defending champion, and Jelena Ostapenko, the defending champion, won in the second round. Beatriz haddad Maia has won back to back grass-court events at Nottingham and Birmingham in the past two weeks.