Serena Williams’ evolution back toward tennis continued Sunday with the announcement that the sport has been eagerly anticipating.
“Just finished a mean game of duck duck goose,” the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion and mother of two wrote on X hours after Wimbledon announced that Williams will be playing as a wild card entry in women’s singles at this year’s event, which begins June 29 at The All England Club in London.
An eighth Wimbledon singles victory for the 44-year-old tennis legend would seem unlikely. Williams’ lengthy hiatus has left her unranked in singles, which could mean early matches against such players as defending champion Iga Swiatek or world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka.
Still, Williams has the opportunity to tie Margaret Court for the most women’s singles Grand Slam titles. Court won 13 of her 24 Grand Slams before the Open Era began in 1968; before that, only amateurs were allowed to compete in Grand Slam tournaments. Williams is already considered the record-holder for the Open Era.
Also, Williams could move into a tie with Helen Wills Moody for second-most titles at the tournament. Martina Navratilova holds the record with nine Wimbledon championships.
Williams famously avoided the word “retirement” when she announced she was “evolving away from tennis” in August 2022. The following month, after losing to Australian Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round of the U.S. Open, Williams registered as retired with the International Tennis Integrity Agency.
After nearly four years away from competitive tennis, Williams’ comeback is now in full swing. First came a doubles pairing with Canadian Victoria Mboko at the HSBC Queen’s Club Championships in London earlier this month.
The pair won their opening match against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand 7-6 (2), 6-2 on June 9 but had to forfeit the next round after Mboko injured her left knee in a fall during a singles match.
Last week, Williams partnered with Czech tennis star Karolína Muchová at the WTA 500 Berlin Open, where they lost their opening match to Giuliana Olmos of Austria and Routliffe 6-4, 6-4.
On Tuesday, The All England Club announced that Williams and sister Venus had accepted a doubles wild card invitation for Wimbledon. The Williams sisters have won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles together, including six at Wimbledon.
At that point, one wild card entry remained open for women’s singles — a fact that a reporter mentioned to Williams last week during a news conference in Berlin and asked if she might take it. Williams played coy in her response.
“Oh my gosh, there’s some left?” Williams said. “We better get to practice.”
The reporter pressed with his question.
“That’s the question of the hour, right?” Williams said. “I don’t know. I don’t know. I wonder why there’s — I don’t know.”
Williams remained low-key about her singles return on Sunday, with her only acknowledgment being a repost of Wimbledon’s announcement on her Instagram Story.
The post Serena Williams will make her singles return at Wimbledon … once she’s done playing ‘duck duck goose’ appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
