Serena Williams is back on a tennis court, and she's still serving bombs.

After nearly four years away from professional tennis, the 44-year-old American made her return at Queen's Club in London on Tuesday. She teamed up with 19-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko to win their opening doubles match 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 against third seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe.

Williams hit service winners up to 193km/h and showed flashes of the power that made her one of the greatest players ever. She served out the match with two aces followed by a service winner, just to punctuate the point.

But when asked to grade her performance in the post-match press conference, Williams was brutally honest.

"A C-minus," she said, before adding: "With all the elements, considering coming back on grass is probably not the easiest surface ... Grass, four years. Overall, I think it was decent."

Decent might be underselling it. Routliffe is a two-time US Open doubles champion. Melichar-Martinez has made the doubles final at Flushing Meadows and Wimbledon. Williams and Mboko handled them in straight sets.

Williams hadn't competed since the 2022 US Open, where she bid farewell without using the word "retirement." She called it "evolving" away from tennis. At the time, she was 40 and had just played what everyone assumed was her last match.

Now she's back, and the crowd at Queen's Club loved it. She received a standing ovation as she walked onto the Andy Murray Arena — the loudest cheer of the day, even louder than the ones for British players Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter earlier.

It was Williams' first appearance at Queen's Club, a venue that has hosted men's tennis since 1881 but only added a women's tournament in 2025. "I never got to play here, it was always just the men," Williams said. "It felt really special to play some place so iconic."

Among the crowd were her friend Lindsey Vonn, the skiing star whose own comeback ended in a crash at the Milan Cortina Olympics, and Williams' two daughters, Olympia and Adira. It was the first time Adira, born in 2023, watched her mother play a match.

Their reaction? Not exactly overwhelmed.

"Adira wanted to go to the toy store, and Olympia wanted to know what was for dinner," Williams said.

Williams is set to play doubles in Berlin next week. But she hasn't decided whether she'll extend her comeback to Wimbledon, which starts June 29.

"It's just a day at a time," she said. "I still have a little time to decide, and they have been great about giving me that space and time to decide."

Williams won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, including seven at Wimbledon, and 14 Grand Slam doubles titles — all with her sister Venus. If she does play Wimbledon, it would be her first appearance there since 2021.

For now, she's taking it one match at a time. But if her serves are any indication, she's not just here to make up the numbers.