The Queen of Tennis To Hold Court in Eastbourne

It's that time of the year again.
I'm back in Eastbourne after the French Open, and it's the start of those few weeks of the year in Britain when tennis seems to matter to the man or woman in the street. In this town, in particular, of course, with the tournament beginning this coming weekend. The promotion seems very good this year, in terms of omnipresence, with the giant posters of Tsonga and Ivanovic seemingly everywhere, and the controversially airbrushed pictures depicting Eastbourne as having a sandy beach, rather than the pebbled one it seems many residents are extremely proud of.
The financial benefits to the town are enormous in many different areas. Just last night a taxi driver was telling me that he must make sure to do several shifts next week. And, while tennis isn't necessarily the top topic of conversation with everyone in the town, it's clear that interest is growing. This morning I saw people stopping, doing an about-turn to confirm that they read correctly the headline on the newspaper stand: "SERENA JOINS VENUS AT TENNIS".
Yep, it's something of a coup. Many people thought Serena Williams wasn't likely to make her comeback until later in the summer, but now she's announced that she'll play her first tournament in nearly a year right here on the south coast of England.
If you didn't know, days after winning her 4th Wimbledon title - and 13th Grand Slam - last July, Serena suffered a freak mishap, cutting her foot on broken glass while at a restaurant. She still managed to play an exhibition extravaganza in Belgium, in front of a record crowd for a tennis match, standing in for an injured Justine Henin in what was originally billed "The Best of Belgium". She lost to Kim Clijsters, underwent surgery, and was out of the game for the rest of the year. Earlier this year the world was shocked by the news that the 29 year old had needed emergency surgery for blood clots on her lung. A few weeks ago she posted pictures of herself back on a tennis court, in practise, on her twitter site.
In many people's minds, whatever the rankings say, she's still the queen of tennis. Time will tell whether that crown can be officially restored.