Eastbourne, United Kingdom, June 23 (AFP\/APP):Serena Williams stepped up her comeback as the American star powered to a second successive victory in the Eastbourne doubles with her partner Ons Jabeur on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Williams and Tunisia’s Jabeur defeated Shuko Aoyama and Chan Hao-ching 6-2, 6-4 in the quarter-finals of the Wimbledon warm-up event at Devonshire Park.<\/p>\n
Serena, a 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, is playing her first tournament since she made a tearful, injury-enforced exit from Wimbledon last year.<\/p>\n
Williams, 40, had initially looked rusty on her first appearance for 12 months in Tuesday’s victory over Sara Sorribes Tormo and Marie Bouzkova.<\/p>\n
But she grew into that match and was more like her old self in the second step on her comeback trail.<\/p>\n
It took only two minutes for the American to send down an ace before several clinical volleys provided the first break.<\/p>\n
The opening set was wrapped up in 25 minutes and another break inspired by Serena in the ninth game of the second set put them on the brink of victory.<\/p>\n
One more ace for Williams’ tally helped get her and Jabeur over the line and they are now just two victories away from securing the title.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know if you know the team name? It’s ‘OnSerena’!” Serena said of her partnership with Jabeur, who had never played with the American until this week.<\/p>\n
“I have had some really good training leading up to Wimbledon and up to this tournament, really hitting the ball well. I feel like I have been serving well so that’s been really good.<\/p>\n
“It was actually good match play and match practice, which is exactly what I needed. I couldn’t have asked for more.”<\/p>\n
Serena admitted on Tuesday that she had doubts if she would ever make it back after her injury lay-off, but her competitive juices are flowing again with Wimbledon on the horizon.<\/p>\n
“I will always enjoy the competitive side. There is a part of me that will always miss it, no matter what happens,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I was just recovering and taking time off, just taking mental breaks. Now when I’m back, it’s like, especially this match in particular, OK, you really remember the competitiveness.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eastbourne, United Kingdom, June 23 (AFP\/APP):Serena Williams stepped up her comeback as the American star powered to a second successive victory in the Eastbourne doubles with her partner Ons Jabeur on Wednesday. Williams and Tunisia’s Jabeur defeated Shuko Aoyama and Chan Hao-ching 6-2, 6-4 in […]<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":48764,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-sports-news"],"yoast_head":"\n