Serena loses to Venus on her return to the court

Reuters - Serena Williams lost to her sister Venus on her return to the court at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship on Thursday (December 27). Venus won on a super tiebreak 4-6 6-3 10-8 in Abu Dhabi to triumph over Serena, who was playing her first competitive match since she lost a controversial U.S. Open final to Japan's Naomi Osaka in September. The exhibition match is part of Serena's build-up for the Australian Open, where she will try to equal Margaret Court's tally of 24 grand slam singles titles. Men's defending champion Kevin Anderson of South Africa had to fight back from a set down to beat South Korea's Hyeon Chung 6-7(4) 6-2 6-1. Chung fought back from 5-2 down in the first set before taking it on a tiebreak but the Wimbledon runner-up stepped up a gear to take the next two sets comfortably. The other match of the opening day saw Russia's Karen Khachanov beat Dominic Thiem of Austria 7-6(3) 6-3.