With a new husband and a new baby, Serena Williams has a lot to celebrate. Unfortunately, a win at her first tennis match back after almost a year isn’t one of them.
According to PEOPLE, the 36-year-old athlete faced off against French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, 20, in an exhibition match at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi.
According to the Associated Press, Williams struggled with her serve in the first match, Ostapenko trumping her 6-2. She rebounded in the second, winning 3-2, but ended up losing in a super tiebreaker, 10-5.
Though she lost, Williams remained in good spirits. “It’s good to be back on the court,” Williams said after the match, ESPN reported. “This was such a good time for me. First matches back are always super-incredibly hard, especially after having a baby. It was great. I was glad I could do it here.”
It helped that husband (and Reddit co-founder) Alexis Ohanian, 34, was there cheering her on. “Mama is back in the office,” he gushed on Instagram on Saturday, alongside a photo of Williams signing tennis balls for fans.
