Serena Williams Set to Return to Singles Action at Wimbledon

The 23-time Major winner has confirmed a return to singles at Wimbledon this month after being handed a wildcard.

There had been growing speculation after the final place in the women’s draw remained open on Tuesday, with the seven-time champion ultimately taking the spot.

The American has played twice in doubles since ending her four-year break from the sport.

She is already a seven-time Wimbledon singles champion, but still sits one Grand Slam title short of Margaret Court’s all-time women’s record of 24 majors.

Williams had already secured a wildcard for the doubles draw, where she was set to partner her older sister Venus.

The 44-year-old’s last Wimbledon singles match ended in a 6-2, 6-2 defeat to Simona Halep in the final.

Williams spent 319 weeks as world number one and won 73 WTA singles titles across her career.

She also completed a career Golden Slam in singles and doubles, winning all four Grand Slam titles as well as Olympic gold, and claimed every major singles title at least three times.

Her first-round opponent will be confirmed at Friday’s draw, with Wimbledon beginning on Monday, 29 June.

Williams won her first Wimbledon singles title in 2002, beating Venus in the final, before repeating the feat in 2003. She went on to win again in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2016, with her seventh title taking her level with Steffi Graf’s Open era record of 22 major singles titles.

After taking maternity leave in 2017, she returned to reach consecutive Wimbledon finals, losing to Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep.

Her 2021 Wimbledon campaign ended after just six games when she retired injured against Aliaksandra Sasnovich, with doubts over her future at the time.

Given a wildcard in 2022, she came within two points of victory against Harmony Tan before losing in a final-set tie-break. Asked afterwards if that would be her final Wimbledon appearance, Williams said: “That’s a question I can’t answer. Who knows? Who knows where I’ll pop up?”

Williams has won 14 Wimbledon titles in total, including six women’s doubles and one mixed doubles crown, and also claimed Olympic singles and doubles gold at the 2012 London Games on the same courts.

Across her career she won 107 of her 123 singles matches on grass, her strongest surface with an 87% win rate.

She played what was widely expected to be the final match of her career at the 2022 US Open, saying she would be “evolving away” from the sport, while avoiding the word retirement.

A return remained in play, driven in part by the idea of her two daughters seeing her compete. Williams won the Australian Open while pregnant with her first daughter Olympia and gave birth to her second, Adira, in 2023.

Her daughters were in the stands when she won her first doubles match back at Queen’s alongside Victoria Mboko, before the pair withdrew when Mboko picked up a knee injury.

She later entered doubles in Berlin, losing in the first round alongside Karolina Muchova, and remained cautious when asked about singles at Wimbledon, before returning to London and training at SW19 shortly after.