Serena happy to be back playing after troubles

Williams has not played since winning her fourth crown at SW19 last year after badly cutting her foot while coming out of a German restaurant.

The 29-year-old was then hospitalised with blood clots on her lung which she believes developed due to having to wear a cast for 20 weeks to protect her foot.

“I was on my death bed at one point – quite literally. I’ve had a serious illness but at first I didn’t appreciate that,” she said ahead of her return match against Tsvetana Pironkova.

“At first people said it would be fine, it would be all right but it turned out to be a lot more serious. If it had been left two days later it could have been career-ending – or even worse.

“They told me I had several blood clots in both lungs. A lot of people die from that.

“It got to the stage where it felt like I could hardly breathe. Some days I didn’t get out of bed at all. I just laid on a couch thinking why has this happened to me?

“It’s why this is a comeback that’s totally different from any other comeback.”

Sister Venus won in her first-round match, beating Germany’s Andrea Petkovic 7-5 5-7 6-3.

Third seed Victoria Azarenka also advanced through to the second round after overcoming China’s Shuai Peng 6-4 7-6 (7/2) and Czech fifth seed Petra Kvitova beat Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia 5-7 6-1 6-3 to book her place in the next round.

Unseeded German Sabine Lisicki beat Daniela Hantuchova in the final of the AEGON Classic in Birmingham yesterday, overcoming the fourth seed 6-3 6-2.

Lisicki, currently ranked No 100 in the world, broke the fourth seed once in the first set and twice more in the second to secure an impressive win.

The victory means Lisicki, 21, has now won two events on the WTA tour.