Serena's Doubles Partner Victoria Mboko Withdraws from Wimbledon Due to MCL Injury

LONDON -- Rising star Victoria Mboko will miss Wimbledon because of a knee injury sustained during a match this week at Queen's Club, where the Canadian teenager was in the spotlight as the doubles partner of Serena Williams .

The 19-year-old Mboko, who is ranked No. 9, slipped and appeared to strain her knee during a match against Karolina Pliskova at the HSBC Championships. While trying to return a shot in the second set, Mboko slipped behind the baseline and immediately grabbed her left knee. She told a physiotherapist there was "no stability" in it. She retired from the match and later pulled out of the doubles event .

"Unfortunately, my fall on Wednesday caused an injury to the MCL on my left knee, which sadly means I will miss the remainder of the grass season. This unfortunately means Wimbledon too, a tournament I had been so looking forward to playing this year," Mboko wrote on Instagram.

A post shared by Victoria Mboko (@vickymboko)

Williams and Mboko had won their opening doubles match Tuesday - in the 44-year-old Williams' first professional match since the 2022 U.S. Open.

In her Wimbledon debut last year, Mboko reached the second round where she lost to Hailey Baptiste .

Mboko gave a special thanks Friday to Williams "for giving me this incredible opportunity to play alongside you. I learnt so much from you and am so sorry our tournament came to an end prematurely, but I hope we can play together again soon and finish what we started."

_Originally reported by [ESPN](https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/49041137/serena-doubles-partner-mboko-miss-wimbledon-knee-injury)._