Serena Williams has marked her return to competitive tennis with a thrilling doubles win alongside Ons Jabeur in Eastbourne.
After 12 months on the sidelines, the 23-time grand slam champion made her long-awaited return on Tuesday at the grass-court event in the lead-up to Wimbledon
The 40-year-old teamed up with Jabeur to produce a 2-6 6-3 13-11 win over Sara Sorribes Tormo and Marie Bouzkova in the first round clash.
Williams made a slow start but soon got into the groove and hit an array of winners sprinkled with a handful of aces.
She produced a brilliant cross-court winner to secure the second set and send the match to a deciding tiebreak.
“It was so fun to play with Ons,” Williams said on-court. “It was great. We had a lot of fun and our opponents played amazing. We were happy to stay in there.
“I called Ons, she has been playing so well and I knew I needed to play some matches and she has always been so nice to me on tour.
“Yeah, I caught some fire behind me, it was good.”
Williams walked onto court to Irene Cara’s “What A Feeling” for what was her third career appearance at Eastbourne, having previously played in the singles event in 1998 and 2011.
She was also sporting three black patches on her right cheek, a move that had fans and commentators baffled.
“Serena Williams appears to have two large black bandages or some type of tape on her face. No idea what that’s about,” tweeted reporter Dan Wolken.
