Serena Williams has announced she will return to competitive tennis at Queen’s Club this month.
The 23-time singles grand slam champion has received a doubles wildcard for the HSBC Championships and will be part of the 16-team draw alongside her partner, Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko. The timing of her comeback seems a convenient warm-up for Wimbledon, which is set to get underway on June 30.
Williams never formally retired from the sport, only saying she was “evolving away” from tennis, but four years have now passed since her last oturnament entry.
She did make a move that piqued the interest of tennis fans at the end of last year by re-entering herself into the sports drug-testing body, the International Tennis Integrity Agency, but denied any intention to return.
But Williams will now do exactly that, confirming the move in an announcement on her Instagram. She posted a video of herself on court, approaching her ringing phone, followed by captions which read: “Guess everybody heard the news. Good news travels fast.”
“Queen’s Club feels like the perfect place to begin this next chapter,” Williams later said. “Grass has given me some of the most meaningful moments of my career, and I’m excited to be back competing on one of the sport’s most iconic stages.”
It remains to be seen whether she will play at Wimbledon this summer.
The 39-time major winner has not appeared in competition since the 2022 US Open, where she fell to a third-round exit.
She has 23 singles grand slams, 14 doubles grand slams and four Olympic medals to her name. She is also the only player to ever achieve a ‘Career Golden Slam’, in both singles and doubles.
