Serena Williams is returning to singles tennis at Wimbledon at the age of 44, accepting a wild card invitation from the All England Club for both singles and doubles competition alongside sister Venus.
Williams has not played an official singles match in nearly four years, making her decision to enter the sport’s most prestigious tournament without any singles preparation all the more remarkable. She eased back into competitive tennis this month with two doubles appearances, winning alongside Victoria Mboko at Queen’s Club before losing with Karolina Muchova at the Berlin Open.
ESPN commentator Patrick McEnroe saw the move as entirely in keeping with Williams’ character.
“I would call this Serena being Serena. It’s very Serena-like to do something audacious like this and I didn’t think for one minute she was coming back to play doubles only,” he said.
Fellow ESPN commentator Mary Joe Fernandez, who coached Williams as Fed Cup captain and with the United States Olympic team, described the singles entry as a sign of confidence, adding: “No one’s going to want to face her.”
Williams holds 23 Grand Slam singles titles, seven of them at Wimbledon, along with 14 doubles titles, all won alongside Venus. She also swept the singles and doubles titles at the 2012 London Olympics and was runner-up four times in singles at the All England Club. Questions remain, however, over her ability to cover the court across the duration of a singles match after such a lengthy absence.
The singles draw takes place on Friday, with her opening match scheduled for either Monday 29 or Tuesday 30 June. As Williams holds no current ranking and will not be seeded, she could face any of the top players as early as the first round.
Among the leading title contenders are world number one Aryna Sabalenka, 2022 champion Elena Rybakina, and freshly crowned French Open champion Mirra Andreeva, who at 19 is 25 years younger than Williams. Defending champion Iga Swiatek also remains a strong threat on grass.
On the men’s side, top-ranked Jannik Sinner is the favourite to defend his title despite an early exit at Roland Garros. Sinner’s most serious challenger could be 39-year-old Novak Djokovic, a seven-time Wimbledon champion and 24-time Grand Slam winner who has reached the last four or better in his last seven appearances at the tournament. Carlos Alcaraz remains sidelined with a right wrist injury that also ruled him out of the French Open, while Alexander Zverev, who claimed his first Grand Slam title in Paris, has never advanced beyond the fourth round at Wimbledon.
