Victoria Mboko withdraws from Queen’s doubles with Serena Williams after injuring left knee

Queen’s Club, LONDON — Victoria Mboko was forced to withdraw from her singles match against Karolína Plíšková at Queen’s on Wednesday afternoon with a left knee injury, and has now withdrawn from her doubles quarterfinal with Serena Williams, scheduled for Thursday.

Williams and Mboko beat Erin Routliffe and Nicole Melichar-Martinez on Tuesday in what was the American’s first match for almost four years, and they were in line to face Laura Siegemund of Germany and Canada’s Leylah Fernandez.

But Mboko, the 19-year-old singles world No. 9 from Canada, suffered a nasty fall against Plíšková of the Czech Republic.

Mboko was down a set, but up 4-3 in the second, when she took a nasty fall on the baseline. Her right leg slid out as she moved laterally, with her left leg buckling as a result, and Mboko went down clutching at her left knee. After about a minute on the floor, Mboko was able to get up but was fighting back tears as she spoke to the trainer.

The Canadian was then able to walk to her chair, where she covered her face with a towel as she received treatment. Mboko, who described the sensation of having “no stability” on her left knee, promptly retired from the match, and left the court unaided. A left knee injury was later given as the reason for her withdrawal in a tournament statement.

She and Williams were scheduled for not before 5:30 p.m. local time Thursday, a little more than 24 hours after Mboko suffered the injury, but the Canadian will now focus on being fit for Wimbledon.

Williams will next be in action playing doubles at next week’s Berlin Open, ahead of a possible return at Wimbledon, which starts Monday, June 29.

Speaking in a news conference after she and Mboko’s win Tuesday, Williams said that the All England Club has “been great about giving me that space and time to decide.” Williams has also left the door open to playing singles as well as doubles, and said in a news conference over the weekend: “I want to play singles and we’ll see if I get there. And if not, that’s not my journey right now.”

Mboko, who rose into the WTA top 10 on the back of a stellar 12 months in which she won the Canadian Open, a WTA 1000 event, and reached the fourth round of this year’s Australian Open, has had issues with her left knee in the past, especially during her junior career, and tore a tendon in it in 2022.

Plíšková, the 2021 Wimbledon finalist who only recently returned from a serious ankle injury herself, will face Marie Bouzková or Donna Vekić in the singles quarterfinals Friday.