“I’ve got it. I’ve got it.” That was the firm and assertive message relayed by Serena Williams to her doubles partner, Victoria Mboko, whenever the ball went down the middle during her first competitive tennis match in almost four years.
And, on this evidence, Williams has still got it. Enough of it, anyway, to be competitive on the women’s doubles circuit.
Taking on third seeds – and doubles specialists – Erin Routliffe and Nicole Melichar-Martinez, Williams and Mboko ran out 7-6, 6-2 winners to the delight of a capacity crowd at Queen’s Club.
While Williams might have looked rusty at certain moments, and all of her 44 years at others, she still produced the most memorable strokes of an entertaining evening: first a reflex backhand winner off a Routliffe smash, and later a pair of back-to-back aces to bring up match point.
But her best move was made three weeks ago. That was the decision to invite Mboko, the 19-year-old Canadian who already stands at No 9 in the singles rankings, to be her partner. In a match with its fair share of bloopers, Mboko was comfortably the best player on the court.
Asked to rate her own performance, Williams replied: “My God, I think I would give myself – what do you think? A C-minus?”
At this point, Mboko rode tactfully to her rescue. “It’s funny, because there were moments in the match where we were, ‘Oh, this isn’t going great.’ Or [we were] very self-critical. It feels like it was far from our [best] level a little bit, but I think it’s great knowing that you have so much room for improvement.”
A generous soul, Mboko then told Williams, “Don’t be too hard on yourself”, as they batted around the various factors which might have made this a challenging outing. Firstly, the three years and nine months which Williams had spent away from the match court, and secondly the particular challenges of grass: a slick surface that tends to expose any player who isn’t light and dainty on their feet.
In Williams’s case, her movement was rather on the creaky side. She also looked anxious in the opening minutes of the match, butchering her first forehand volley into the net and sending down her first few serves in what seemed to be slow motion.
As it turned out, though, the Williams serve – which could be considered the greatest and most influential shot in the history of women’s tennis – was only just warming up. Game by game, her speeds began to climb, and eventually she clocked 120mph – a comfortably superior figure to anything that Mboko, Routliffe or Melichar-Martinez could manage. It is hard to imagine that a 44-year-old woman has ever served so fast.
“Come on, Serena, USA baby!” came one shout from the stands, which had emptied out considerably for the previous match involving defending champion Tatjana Maria, but were now rammed to the gunwales.
Williams’s serving game was consistent, giving up only one break in the middle of the first set, and winning 61 per cent of the points – although Mboko was even more effective with a 77 per cent success rate.
When the opponents served, it was a different story. Williams was repeatedly cramped up by body serves and won just one of the first 11 points when she was the returner. Again, happily for her, Mboko was Ms Reliable, using her ferocious backhand to claim 41 per cent of her returning points when Williams was trending at barely half that figure.
“I just thought about having fun, which I did today,” said Williams. “I got nervous right before the match, like, maybe 30 minutes before, and then I just let it go.”