Serena a winner in first US appearance since 2009

WASHINGTON – Serena Williams was a winner in her first competitive US tennis event in nearly two years, leading the Washington Kastles to a 25-10 victory over the Boston Lobsters Thursday in World TeamTennis.

With Michelle Obama, the wife of US President Barack Obama, and their two daughters watching, Williams won a set of singles and helped Washington’s mixed doubles and women’s doubles set triumphs before a sellout crowd of about 2,800.

Williams, a 13-time Grand Slam champion, missed most of the 2010 season with injuries and was eliminated in the fourth round at Wimbledon 10 days ago in her title defense.

“I showed up and did a halfway decent job and I’ll just continue to build on that,” Williams said. “I haven’t played in a year except for two tournaments.”

Williams, who owns 37 career titles, plans to play in tournaments at Stanford, Toronto and Cincinnati as tuneups for her return to the US Open next month at Flushing Meadows.

The 29-year-old American, nagged by foot injuries and blood clots that required emergency surgery earlier this year, had not played an event at a US venue since a controversial semi-final loss to Kim Clijsters at the US Open.

Williams, who has seen her ranking plunge to 175th in the world, lost to Clijsters at the US Open two years ago after yelling and shaking her racket at a line judge who had called her for a foot fault.

Williams was assessed a penalty point which came on match point and handed her Belgian foe the victory.

After apologizing for the incident at the time, Williams said she has moved on and forgotten about it.

“I don’t really remember that incident to be honest,” Williams said. “Whatever. It was ages ago. That was so 2009.”

Williams defeated Boston’s Coco Vandeweghe 5-4 in the final set of the Kastles match. She joined India’s Leander Paes in downing Vandeweghe and Eric Butorac 5-1 in mixed doubles and partnered with Australian Rennae Stubbs for a 5-2 victory in women’s doubles.