Williams to Partner Muchova as Comeback Continues
Serena Williams, who has won 16 Grand Slam titles across women's and mixed doubles, will partner Czech player Karolina Muchova at next week's Berlin Open as she advances her return to professional tennis.
The 44-year-old, a 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, resumed competitive play earlier this week at the Queen's Club after nearly four years away from the sport. She teamed up with Victoria Mboko in the women's doubles event.
The duo began their campaign successfully by defeating the third-seeded pair Erin Routliffe and Nicole Melichar-Martinez in straight sets. However, they were forced to withdraw from their quarter-final match after Mboko sustained a severe fall during her singles match.
Muchova, aged 29, has reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals twice in women's singles and is currently ranked 10th in the WTA standings.
"I'm pretty excited about it. It doesn't happen every day that such an amazing athlete, not only in tennis but overall in sport, asks you to play tennis with her. I hope it's going to be fun," Muchova said during a press conference in Berlin on Saturday.
Mboko, who retired from her singles match against Karolina Pliskova, has been sidelined for the remainder of the grass-court season, including Wimbledon, due to a medial collateral ligament (MCL) injury in her left knee.
"Unfortunately, my fall on Wednesday caused an injury to the MCL in my left knee," Mboko stated. "I had been so looking forward to playing [Wimbledon] this year."
Regarding her partnership with Williams, Mboko added:
"I learned so much from you and I'm sorry our tournament came to an end prematurely, but I hope we can play together again soon and finish what we started."
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