Serena Williams, Ons Jabeur withdraw from Eastbourne doubles

Serena Williams and Ons Jabeur have withdrawn from the Eastbourne doubles semifinal after Jabeur injured her knee in their quarterfinal matchup.

They had been set to face off against Aleksandra Krunic and Magda Linette. That duo will now advance to the final.

After an up-and-down first round from which they emerged victorious, Williams and Jabeur eased past Shuko Aoyama and Hao-Ching Chan in the second round 6-2, 6-4. It had been Williams’ first matches in nearly a year since going down with an injury at Wimbledon in 2021.

Jabeur had recently won her third WTA Tour title in Berlin last week and enters Wimbledon as the No. 3 seed. Williams, meanwhile, will be a wild card.

For Krunic and Linette, it’ll be their first WTA doubles final as a team. Krunic has made nine finals previously, having won five of them, while Linette has made four, winning her first in Charleston earlier this year.

Williams and Jabeur are scheduled to play in the Wimbledon doubles tournament as well as singles, which begins on Monday.