Eastbourne, June 22 (US): With the song “What A Feeling” booming around Devonshire Park, Serena Williams took to the main court in Eastbourne to standing ovations for her first tennis match in nearly a year.
About 90 minutes later, fans were on their feet again, to celebrate the 23-times champion’s comeback win at Wimbledon on the south coast of England, The Associated Press reports.
Williams partnered with Anas Jaber to beat Sarah Soribes Tormo and Marie Bozkova in the first round of the women’s doubles Tuesday. Williams and Gaber recovered from losing the first set 6-2 to win the second 6-3 and then the tiebreak 13-11 on the third match point.
“It caught fire behind me,” said the 40-year-old. “I needed it. It was good.”
The win means Williams will have at least one more competitive match before the singles play at Wimbledon as a wild entry method. The main draw match for the All England Club begins on Monday.
It was at the turf slam where Williams was last seen in the 2021 competition. She was playing in the first round when she lost both feet and malfunctioned her right leg, which led to Williams’ retirement from the match.
With no competitive activity since then, she ranked 1204 in singles and was not among the ranked players announced by Wimbledon on Tuesday. Few would want to face it when the draw is made on Friday.
“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 – who was wearing three black spots on her right cheek – made a slow start to the match alongside Jabeur which was her third appearance at Eastbourne, having previously played in the singles event in 1998 and 2011.
Served first – its opening transmission was timed at 90 mph (145 km/h) and got the first spot after Sorribes Turmo’s response lasted long – and held to 30.
Williams struggled at times in the first set, and was furious after failing to get low enough for Sorribes Tormo’s shot. It took 25 minutes before Williams hit the winner as her smash flew to the North Stand, ensuring that a spectator was able to leave with a souvenir.
Williams’ agility improved markedly in the second set, although there were gasps audibly from the crowd as she slid into the net.
I set a point with a baseline backhand winner and took the match into the tiebreak with an ace of 102 mph.
Williams showed her willingness to dive right into her right to shoot an irreversible ball that made up one of her three match points. He won the victory when Sorribes Tormo missed a shot in the air.
“Playing with Onnes was so much fun,” Williams said in an on-court interview. “It was great. We had a lot of fun and our opponents put in an amazing performance. We were happy to stay there.”
In the singles, there was a huge shock when top seed Paula Padusa lost 6-4, 6-3 to Jodi Borage, the British wild card. Third seed Maria Scari was also eliminated, losing to Anilina Kalinina 3-6, 7-5, 6-4. Fourth seed Karolina Pliskova, who reached the Wimbledon final last year, lost to Britain’s Katie Poulter, 1-6, 6-4, 6-4.
There were second-round victories for defending champions Jelena Ostapenko and Beatriz Haddad Maya, who have won back-to-back events on grass in Nottingham and Birmingham over the past two weeks.