Anticipation, aces and plenty of smiles: Serena's return lives up to the moment

LONDON -- It's impossible to miss the Serena Williams buzz around the grounds of the Queen's Club on the day of her comeback.

T-shirts referencing her are everywhere: "Greatest Female Athlete." "Are you looking at my titles?" An usher for Court 1, where Filipina star Alexandra Eala is wrapping up her first-round win over Zhang Shuai, fields a steady stream of questions about where and when Williams will be practicing.

It's the 20th such inquiry he's received today, he estimates.

As her actual match time draws closer, the anticipation builds.

"I just saw Alexis [Ohanian, Serena's husband]!" a woman gripping a champagne flute tells her friends as they walk into the Andy Murray Arena stands. "Her kids are so cute."

And the excitement isn't limited to the public. In the players' lounge, when Serena's name is announced for her match call with Victoria Mboko, heads turn en masse. Eala, now doing an interview, breaks off mid-sentence. "Oh my gosh," she exclaims. "Sorry, this is just so crazy to hear her name." Meanwhile, Olympic skiing great Lindsey Vonn is taking up her place on the club balcony for a prime viewing spot.

After the buildup, could the match deliver, and on what level?

Victory? Check. Williams and Mboko defeated another first-time pairing, No. 3 seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe, 7-6(2), 6-2. They'll face Leylah Fernandez and Laura Siegemund, who saved match point to defeat Alexandra Panova and Demi Schuurs 6-2, 2-6, [11-9], in the quarterfinals.

Form? For Mboko, an emphatic yes. The 19-year-old did not face a break point and was rock-solid off the backhand wing. For Williams, there was some understandable rust -- an early volley sailed long. But there were also flashes of the player who won 23 Grand Slam singles titles. On the very next point, she buried an overhead with a familiar grunt that seemed to say: This is what I can still do.

Williams was quick to praise Mboko in her on-court interview.

"She really was able to hold up the team and play big on the big points, and I could rely on her," she said.

But it was Serena who had the shot of the match -- a backhand winner struck off a Routliffe smash that she initially wasn't even sure had landed in.

"There was that one shot you hit -- remember, you were on the run, on the backhand," Mboko said in the team's press conference. "And I was like, 'Oh my gosh, she's got it.'"

That winner brings the house down, but the loudest reaction comes later when Williams fires consecutive aces -- 93 mph out wide on the deuce court, then 102 mph out wide on the ad court -- to help close out the match.

Serena's line, for now, is that this isn't about either victory or form. It's about enjoying herself, and on that front it's been a resounding success.

The first words of her on-court interview are: "I had so much fun out there!" Mboko echoes this in their press conference.

"I just had so much fun today," Mboko said. "I feel like we complemented each other on the court very well. I just really liked our attitude on court. We had the same mentality. That's what I always look for in a partner. I just was enjoying myself."

And when asked about bringing former doubles World No. 1 Rennae Stubbs onto her team this week -- the pair last worked together during Williams' 2022 US Open return -- her answer has little to do with Stubbs' strategic expertise.

"She's very light, lighthearted," Serena said, choosing her words precisely. "Which is nice."

But watching as Serena pulled her very best serves of the day out just when she needed them, or erased the memory of a miss by swatting an even more powerful winner, it was hard to escape the feeling that the most fun that both Victoria Mboko and Serena Williams have is when they win.

What Serena Williams means to her fans

When Hannah Tweedie, from Kent, learned that Serena was playing at Queen's, she immediately bought tickets for the first three days of the tournament. She'd grown up watching Serena at Wimbledon on TV, but this is the first time she's seen her live.

"I never thought I'd get the opportunity to, because obviously she retired four years ago," Tweedie said.

"I just think what she's done, not only as an athlete but as a female athlete, is incredible. If you look right back to the beginning of her career at all the adversity she and Venus faced, what the press would say about her -- the fact they just got on with it, kept their heads down and won as many titles in singles and doubles that they have, is absolutely incredible and it's inspiring."

Tweedie is pregnant, which means that her favorite memory of Serena is even more impressive to her.

"The fact that she was able to win a Grand Slam title whilst pregnant [at the 2017 Australian Open] is amazing. I couldn't imagine doing that, especially in the first trimester. That's incredible and, again, just shows what women are capable of."

Julion Laborde, from New Orleans, and Scott Graham, from Glasgow, were brought together by their shared Serena fandom -- something that now goes back for around two decades. Graham's first memory of Serena was her title run at Wimbledon 2008, where she defeated sister Venus in the final.

"I've been obsessed ever since," he said. "The long nails, the jewelery and just the fact they were sisters playing in the final. Just seeing their talent, their technique, the energy they bring -- it was an immediate attraction to them. She's the reason I got into tennis. I play it all the time and I watch all her highlights on YouTube."

Laborde goes back even further -- the 2005 Wimbledon final, in which Venus saved a match point to defeat Lindsay Davenport and win her first major in two years. For him, the Williams sisters' impact as trailblazing Black athletes was momentous.

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