Serena Williams and Victoria Mboko withdrew from the doubles quarterfinal at Queen’s Club because of a knee injury
The quarterfinal match in women’s doubles at the WTA tournament The HSBC Championships at London’s Queen’s Club, in which Serena Williams and Victoria Mboko were scheduled to play against Leylah Fernandez and Laura Siegemund, will not be played. According to the announcement by the tournament organizers and the British tennis association LTA, Canadian tennis player Mboko withdrew from the doubles draw because of an injury to her left knee. Such an outcome means that Fernandez and Siegemund advance without taking the court, while Williams’s comeback appearance on the WTA Tour ended after only one match played. The news drew particular attention because the 44-year-old American returned to professional tennis in London after almost four years away from the tournament scene.
Withdrawal after an injury in a singles match
Mboko sustained the injury during her second-round singles match against Karolina Pliskova, the former world No. 1. According to the LTA report, the injury happened on June 10, 2026, and because of the knee problem Mboko had to retire from the match in the second set. In its tournament report, the WTA stated that Mboko fell on the grass, after which Pliskova advanced to the quarterfinals of the singles part of the tournament. The organizers confirmed the next day that the Canadian could not compete in doubles either, so the quarterfinal against Fernandez and Siegemund was recorded as the opponents advancing without a contest.
According to the official WTA draw, the Fernandez/Siegemund match against the Mboko/Williams pair was part of the women’s doubles quarterfinal program. The retirement notation in the draw confirms that the result was not formed on the court, but administratively, after the withdrawal of the Canadian-American combination. In the tennis system, such an outcome is recorded as a walkover, that is, one side advancing without the match being played. For the crowd at Queen’s Club, this meant the absence of one of the most closely followed matches of the week, because every Williams appearance after the announcement of her return had generated great interest. For Mboko, who arrived in London as one of the most prominent young players on the Tour, the most important issue now remains recovery and an assessment of the seriousness of the injury.
Williams’s comeback lasted only one match, but it attracted great attention
Serena Williams and Victoria Mboko competed in London with a wildcard for the doubles draw, and already in the first round they achieved a notable victory. According to the WTA and the LTA, they defeated the third seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe 7:6(2), 6:2. That result was significant in sporting terms because Melichar-Martinez and Routliffe are players with extensive doubles experience, and Routliffe had also been the world No. 1 in that discipline during her career. After the match, the WTA emphasized that Williams and Mboko had earned a quarterfinal against Fernandez and Siegemund, who defeated Alexandra Panova and Demi Schuurs 6:2, 2:6, . That quarterfinal match was precisely supposed to be the continuation of Williams’s comeback, but the plan was interrupted by Mboko’s injury.
In its report on the first appearance, the WTA stated that Williams’s return at Queen’s Club was followed with great interest from the crowd, the media and the players. In the first match, according to the same report, Williams showed expected signs of lacking competitive rhythm, but also several recognizable moments, especially on serve and in reactions at the net. After the victory, Mboko said that she and Williams complemented each other well and that they had a similar approach to the game, which further strengthened the impression that their combination could be interesting later in the tournament. Williams praised Mboko after the same match, emphasizing that the young partner played important points and carried a large part of the team. Everything, however, remained at one victory and an unfinished story because of the injury that occurred in singles competition.
Why the appearance in London was important for Williams
Williams played her first WTA Tour tournament at Queen’s Club since the 2022 US Open, the WTA states in its official materials. The American tennis icon has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles in her career, the most among female tennis players in the Open Era, and with her sister Venus she also won 14 Grand Slam titles in women’s doubles. In Williams’s biography, the WTA also states that she was world No. 1 for a total of 319 weeks and that her 186 consecutive weeks at the top of the rankings equals the longest such streak in the history of women’s tennis. Her return was therefore not just another entry in the draw, but an event that connected sporting results, generational interest and the question of how much one of the most successful tennis players in history can be competitively present again.
Ahead of the tournament, the WTA reported that Williams herself emphasized that for now she could not confirm plans for a possible return to singles competition. According to her words from the London press conference, she would need more training for singles, and the current focus was on doubles and on a different experience of returning to competition. In the same conversation, she emphasized that she returned because she wanted to feel the competitive environment again and because it was important to her that her daughters see up close what sport, work and perseverance mean. Such a framework reduced the pressure of results, but did not reduce the interest caused by her appearance. The withdrawal from the quarterfinal therefore does not change the fact that her return attracted attention, but it shows how much, on grass and in a short tournament rhythm, plans are subject to change.
Mboko as the new generation and the partner Williams specifically chose
Victoria Mboko arrived in London as a 19-year-old Canadian and one of the fastest-rising players on the WTA Tour. According to the WTA profile, on June 12, 2026, Mboko is the ninth-ranked player in the world in singles, and the LTA included her among the most interesting names in the women’s part of the HSBC Championships in its tournament preview. The WTA reported that Williams and Mboko received a wildcard for the draw of 16 teams, and before the appearance Mboko emphasized how much it meant to her to share the court with a player she had watched as a role model. In conversations before the tournament, she emphasized that from Williams she could learn about thinking on the court and managing pressure in competitive circumstances. That combination of experience and youth was one of the reasons why their appearance drew attention beyond the usual coverage of doubles.
According to the WTA, Williams noticed Mboko after her major breakthrough in Montreal in 2025, when as a wildcard player she won the title with victories against Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina and Naomi Osaka. In her London conversation with the media, Williams emphasized that, besides her game, Mboko’s attitude after her first major success also impressed her. This explains why the American tennis player chose precisely a younger player who is only building her own path at the top of women’s tennis for her comeback. For Mboko, appearing with Williams could have been a valuable experience in a period in which she is already dealing with the expectations placed on a player from the top of the world game. The injury interrupted that developmental moment, but it did not erase the impression that the pair had already shown enough quality in the first match for a serious result.
Fernandez and Siegemund continue the tournament without a contest
Leylah Fernandez and Laura Siegemund entered the quarterfinals after a narrow victory over Panova and Schuurs, and according to the official WTA draw they have now advanced to the next stage without playing a match against Williams and Mboko. Fernandez is seeded eighth in the singles part of the tournament, while Siegemund is an experienced player who has achieved significant doubles results during her career. Their advance without a contest does not bring the immediate sporting drama of the match itself, but in the tournament context it changes the dynamics of the draw because one of the most closely watched pairs withdrew before attempting to enter the semifinals. For Fernandez and Siegemund, such an outcome means an additional day without competitive effort and an opportunity to prepare for the continuation of the tournament. For the organizers, meanwhile, it means the loss of an attractive match that was important both for its sporting and promotional value.
In doubles, withdrawals often have broader effects than in singles, because the injury of one player automatically eliminates the entire team. In this case, Mboko’s injury affected not only her singles appearance but also Williams’s attempt to gradually build rhythm through doubles after a long break. Considering that this was a wildcard and a pair that had no joint tournament history before London, every additional match would have been important for assessing their compatibility. Still, a player’s health takes priority over continuing to compete, especially on grass, a surface on which movement is specific and where slips can have serious consequences. The organizers did not publish additional medical details beyond the information that it was an injury to the left knee.
Queen’s Club as an important stop of the grass-court season
The HSBC Championships at Queen’s Club in 2026 is being held as a combined WTA 500 and ATP 500 event in west London. According to the LTA, the women’s part of the tournament began with qualifying on June 6, the main draw started on June 8, and the singles and doubles finals are scheduled for June 14. The men’s part of the program continues after that, with qualifying from June 13 and the main draw from June 15 to 21. The LTA states that Queen’s Club can accommodate up to 17,000 spectators per day and that the complex has 28 grass courts. Such a tournament profile explains why the event is important in preparation for the central part of the grass-court season, but also why appearances by big names are especially visible.
The return of a women’s professional tournament to Queen’s Club further increased the significance of this week. In its tournament preview, the LTA recalled that 2025 was the first organization of a women’s tournament at Queen’s Club in the Open Era, which gives the 2026 edition an additional historical framework. In that context, the appearance of Williams, one of the most influential players in modern tennis, also had symbolic value for a tournament that is rebuilding its women’s identity at one of London’s best-known tennis locations. The combination of her return, Mboko’s status as a young top-10 player and the tradition of grass-court tennis created a story that went beyond the usual sporting preview of a doubles quarterfinal. That is why the withdrawal because of injury had a greater impact than one unplayed doubles match would otherwise have had.
What follows after the unplayed quarterfinal
According to the LTA, at the moment of withdrawal from Queen’s Club, Williams was entered to play in women’s doubles at the tournament in Berlin the following week, while the WTA states that Mboko will not be her partner there. Thus Williams’s comeback does not necessarily have to end with the London appearance, but its first step was shorter than the organizers and the crowd expected. There is currently no official confirmation that Williams would play singles matches in the near future, and she herself said in London that such a scenario is not an immediate goal. For Mboko, the continuation of the season will depend on the medical assessment of the knee injury and the speed of recovery, about which no more detailed official information had been published by June 12, 2026. Fernandez and Siegemund continue competing at Queen’s Club as the pair that advanced from the quarterfinals without a contest, while the tournament continues according to the women’s week schedule through the final on June 14.
Sources:
- LTA / HSBC Championships – official announcement on Victoria Mboko’s withdrawal from women’s doubles with Serena Williams because of a left knee injury (link)
- WTA – official draw of The HSBC Championships 2026 tournament, including the first-round result and Fernandez/Siegemund’s walkover in the quarterfinal (link)
- WTA – report on Serena Williams’s comeback match and the Williams/Mboko pair’s first-round victory (link)
- LTA / HSBC Championships – official tournament preview, schedule, status as a WTA 500 and ATP 500 event and information about Queen’s Club (link)
- WTA – conversation and context of Williams’s return to professional tennis and partnership with Victoria Mboko (link)
- WTA – official Serena Williams profile with biographical and career information (link)
- WTA – official Victoria Mboko profile with current ranking and basic information (link)
- WTA – report on Mboko’s injury in the match against Karolina Pliskova and the context of the retirement in the singles tournament (link)