Serena Williams may yet win a title on her comeback schedule.
The American star defeated Shuko Aoyama and Chan Hao-ching 6-2, 6-4 to reach the women’s doubles semi-finals in Eastbourne on Wednesday.
And, before next week’s play in singles at Wimbledon, there were signs the 40-year-old Williams was regaining some sharpness after almost a year.
Like back-to-back pick-up shots from his toes in the first set. Like three straight aces at break point in the second game of the second set.
In fact, Williams’ serve – the biggest women’s game ever under the pump – was increasingly impressive, and it was the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion that served the match.
The five break points he faced, sent four aces and one non-refundable serve.
Overall, her performance was more polished than Tuesday, when Williams and Jabeur needed to win a tiebreaker to advance to the grass-court tournament on England’s south coast. He got off to a quick start against Aoyama and Chan and won the first set in 25 minutes.
Williams was keen to deflect attention from any praise of her partner.
“I think we played a lot better together today,” she said, “though I think we played a lot better together yesterday as well.
“But the Ones really helped me today. She was playing great. I was just looking at her like, ‘Wow, that’s great’.”
Jabeur still appears star-struck with Williams.
“I’m getting used to it, really,” laughed the Tunisian player.
Then, he turned to Williams and said: “Do you want to play the US Open?”
Therefore, Williams’ competitive preparation for Wimbledon would require at least one more match. In the semi-finals, Williams and Jabur will face Magda Lynette and Alexandra Krunic, who defeated the second seeded pair of Gabriela Dabrowski and Giuliana Olmos 6-1, 6-3.
“I didn’t know we were in the semi-finals – it’s super fast,” Jaboor said, “but it’s great for us.”
In women’s singles, Beatriz Haddad Maia looked on course for a third grass-court title in three weeks, ending British wild card pair Burj’s 6-1, 6-2 hopes in the second round. The Brazilian player is making a comeback after winning the Nottingham Open and Birmingham Classic.
Jelena Ostapenko continued her title defense, advancing to the quarterfinals after retiring after losing 6–3 in the first set to her rival Madison Keys. The other players in the last eight were two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and Camila Giorgi.
In the men’s event, defending champion Alex de Minaur defeated Lorenzo Sonego 7-6(3), 6-2 and went down to second seed Jannik Sinner 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to Tommy Paul. faced.
Fourth seed Diego Schwartzman was another big name, having fallen after a 7-5, 7-6(3) loss to Jack Draper of a large serving Britain.
This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed.