Serena Williams’ highly anticipated tennis comeback at the Queens’ Club Championships has been thrown into serious jeopardy following a severe injury suffered by her doubles partner, Victoria Mboko. The latter walked off of her singles match on Wednesday, June 10, 2026.
During Mboko’s round-of-16 singles match against Karolina Pliskova at the Queen’s Club, she suffered a hard slip on the grass court. Trailing 6-2, 3-4, she chased a forehand and lost her footing, which led to the injury as she immediately grabbed her left knee. The 19-year-old was visibly emotional, and even after taking a medical timeout, she was unable to continue and officially retired from the match.
Now, this injury is expected to affect Williams’ comeback, as after the injury, Mboko might not be able to play in their upcoming doubles quarterfinal against Leylah Fernandez and Laura Siegemund. The Canadian’s absence from the court will force the pair to give their opponents a walkover, abruptly ending Williams’ grass-court comeback in London after just one match.
According to the WTA tournament rules, players are not allowed to change partners once the tournament has started, so there is no other way for the American to continue playing at the HSBC championships. If Serena Williams’ journey at the Queen’s Club comes to an end, she is reportedly scheduled to compete next at the WTA 500 Berlin Open doubles tournament alongside Karolina Muchova.
Victoria Mboko opened up about her experience of playing alongside Serena Williams
After winning the first round of the Queen’s Club doubles tournament against Erin Routliffe and Nicole Melichar-Martinez, Serena Williams and Victoria Mboko addressed the media on the field. During this conversation, the 19-year-old made her feelings known about playing with the American.
Stating that they had a lot of fun and highlighting the room for improvement in their performance, she said:
“We did have a lot of fun. You know, I feel like there’s room for improvement. There were so many times in the match where we were kind of just like, this could be so much better we could be doing. But, you know, it was a little funny. It was we had a little bit of humor to it and it kind of made me more relaxed. Both of our game styles, I feel like complement each other very well, and you know, that really helped us get through today,” said Mboko.
Williams, on the other hand, was asked about the takeaways from the first match that she would implement in the upcoming rounds. Highlighting her missed returns in this match and praising Mboko, she said:
“Well, I think Vicky’s doing great. There’s a lot I need to make some returns next match, which I will, I haven’t, I didn’t miss one in practice, but yeah, that was a little embarrassing out there. But you know the good news is we can do better. I can do better. I don’t know about you, you did great,” said Serena Williams.
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