Serena Williams is set to return to singles competition at Wimbledon this year, marking her first singles match at the All England Club since the 2022 U.S. Open. The 44-year-old tennis legend received a wild card entry on Sunday, joining the doubles event alongside her sister Venus Williams, who is also competing with a wild card.

Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam singles champion—just one shy of Margaret Court’s all-time record—made her initial comeback earlier this month by participating in doubles at the Queen’s Club tournament with partner Victoria Mboko. Their campaign was cut short due to an injury to Mboko. Following that, Williams competed in the doubles draw at the Berlin Open with Karolina Muchova but was eliminated in the first round.

Her return to professional tennis followed several months of speculation, fueled in part by her reentry into the sport’s anti-doping testing protocols in December 2025. When asked about a possible comeback during a January appearance on the “Today” show, Williams responded ambiguously, stating, “I don’t know, I’m just going to see what happens.”

Williams had stepped away from competitive tennis in 2022, refraining from calling it a retirement, and instead describing her departure as “evolving away” from the sport in an essay published in Vogue. Since then, she has devoted time to raising her two daughters, Olympia and Adira, with husband Alexis Ohanian, and has pursued various business interests. Among these, she and Ohanian invested in Angel City FC of the National Women’s Soccer League, and she joined the ownership group of the WNBA expansion team Toronto Tempo.

Venus Williams has also made a recent comeback, having returned to the sport in July 2025 after a 16-month hiatus. Venus and Canadian player Leylah Fernandez reached the quarterfinals in the doubles draw at the U.S. Open last year before being ousted.

The upcoming Wimbledon appearance will mark the first time Serena and Venus have played doubles together since 2022, and their first Wimbledon doubles partnership since 2016. Throughout their careers, the Williams sisters have claimed 14 Grand Slam doubles titles. Serena has suggested that this latest return to competition reflects a broader perspective on her role in tennis and her life beyond the sport.