Delight for Williams after winning return

SERENA Williams made a triumphant return to tennis with a 2-6 6-3 13-11 doubles win with Ons Jabeur over Sara Sorribes Tormo and Marie Bouzkova in the first round at Eastbourne.

The 23-time grand slam singles champion had not played since she sustained an injury to her right leg at Wimbledon last summer.

It sparked rumours of retirement but a shock announcement last Tuesday saw Williams reveal she had been given a wild card into SW19 and would begin her preparations by playing doubles at Devonshire Park.

The 40-year-old made a slow start but she soon got into the groove and hit an array of winners sprinkled with a handful of aces.

“It was so fun to play with Ons,” Williams said on-court. “It was great. We had a lot of fun and our opponents played amazing. We were happy to stay in there. I called Ons, she has been playing so well and I knew I needed to play some matches and she has always been so nice to me on tour.

“Yeah, I caught some fire behind me, it was good.”

Meanwhile, British No 4 Katie Boulter roared back from almost suffering a first-set bagel to dump out last year’s Wimbledon finalist Karolina Pliskova in the second round of the Rothesay International Eastbourne.

The 25-year-old trailed 5-0 inside half an hour to the world number seven but after she got on the board kept with the Czech before she got the Centre Court crowd off their feet on a number of occasions during a dramatic second and third set.

Boulter was able to take five of her 19 breakpoint opportunities to secure a 1-6 6-4 6-4 win and continue her great form after she claimed a previous career-best scalp over Alison Riske in Birmingham last week. She said: “I am super proud of myself. I went out, didn’t feel great and worked so hard. I battled and fought and to beat a player like that means so much.”

Boulter’s triumph made it two from two for the British players on Centre Court after Ryan Peniston continued his brilliant few weeks with a 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-1 success over French Open quarter-finalist Holger Rune.

Hilltown Central Domino League presented a cheque to the Gray Lodge. Lynn Hunter receives the cheque from league treasurer Alice Noble, right. AM Soccer (black) beat Fairmuir in the U/14 Jigsaw Media tournament semifinal at Downfield Park and will meet Dundee West Royals in the final this Sunday (1pm) at the same venue. Before that game the Development Cup for Dundee and East Region will take place (10.30am).