Serena Williams and Ons Jabeur win their Eastbourne opener

Serena Williams and Ons Jabeur won in the opening round of the Eastbourne International doubles event against Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo 2-6 6-3 13-11.

The return to tennis of Serena Williams did not go as planned early as the American dropped the first set but she shined bright as the match went on. Yes it was doubles, yes it was a meaningless match for the most but fans enjoyed seeing the pairing progress to the next round. The draw was not in their favour because Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo are both great doubles players.

The Spaniard particularly did a lot of damage in this one frustrating both Serena and Jabeur. The match itself was okay, Serena was playing okay, it was nothing special. Their opponents were quite motivated in this matchup and both played really well.

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From the start, it was obvious that a win would be very difficult to achieve but the American/Tunisian combination certainly tried. After going down 1-3 in the 2nd set they found superb inspiration to come back and make it 3-3. They then went on to win the next three games as well to take the 2nd set with 6-3. In the match tiebreak, they played better and more aggressively.

They were up the majority of the time but only got the win late 13-11 after a terrible miss by Sara Sorribes Tormo. It was their 3rd match point overall.