Serena Williams Explains Why She Ended Retirement, Made Return to Tennis for Queen's Club Doubles

Serena Williams reflected on her return to professional tennis and explained why she ended her retirement following her doubles victory alongside Victoria Mboko at the HSBC Championships on Tuesday.

"It was so fun. I had so much fun playing with Victoria," Williams said after the match, per Steven Griffiths of the AFP (h/t Yahoo Sports). "I never got to play here before, it was always just the men. It feels really special to play somewhere so iconic.

"I had nothing better to do! I got tired of sitting at home. My kids are out of school for the summer, so why not?"

Williams and Mboko secured a 7-6(2), 6-2 win over Erin Routliffe and Nicole Melichar-Martinez at Queen's Club, moving on to the quarterfinals.

It marked Williams' first professional match since the 2022 US Open, as the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion previously said that she was stepping away from the sport.

"I'm here to tell you that I'm evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me," Williams wrote in a first-person article published in Vogue in Aug. 2022.

The 44-year-old's comeback doesn't seem to be a brief one, as she's already scheduled to compete at the Berlin Tennis Open after the HSBC Championships come to a close.