After nearly four years away from the sport, the tennis great made a winning return to top-level tennis at the Queen’s Club Championship last week as she partnered Victoria Mboko during a win over third seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe.
But their run was cut short as Mboko picked up a serious knee injury when she slipped during her singles match against Karolina Pliskova and was forced to retire and later withdrew from the doubles and Wimbledon.
Despite the cruel blow for Mboko, Williams’ participation in Berlin was never in danger as she had already confirmed she would partner world No. 10 Muchova in the doubles at the WTA 500 event in Germany.
The 23-time Grand Slam winner gave herself a C-minus after her performance in the first round at Queen’s Club, although she later stated “it was decent” and will no doubt look to improve further with Wimbledon on the horizon.
“Every tournament I add to my schedule right now feels special, and Berlin is no exception,” the American said about the tournament.
“I’m excited to compete in front of the German fans and continue building momentum throughout the grass-court season.”
The wildcard pair of Williams and Muchova find themselves in the top half of the bracket and will face Giuliana Olmos and Erin Routliffe with the match scheduled for Tuesday at the Steffi Graf Stadion.
The order of play is yet to be confirmed and there could still be a change to the schedule as play has been disrupted the past few days due to rain.
The winner of that clash will take on third seeds Melichar-Martinez and Sara Errani or Chinese duo Jiang Xinyu and Xu Yifan in the second round, while top seeds Anna Danilina and Aleksandra Krunic could await in the semi-final.
There is another interesting partnership in the top half of the draw as Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula have reunited and will face Anastasia Potapova and Diana Shnaider first up before a possible clash against Danilina and Krunic.
Second seeds Elise Mertens and Zhang Shuai are the headline draw in the lower half of the draw and they kick their campaign off against Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls with fourth seeds Ellen Perez and Demi Schuurs projected semifinal opponents.
