Serena Williams accepts Wimbledon singles wild card

Serena Williams will return to singles tennis at Wimbledon, accepting the tournament’s final wild card in a move that extends her comeback beyond doubles and puts the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion back in a major singles draw for the first time since 2022.

The All England Club announced the wild card Sunday. Williams, 44, had already accepted a wild card into the Wimbledon women’s doubles draw with her older sister, Venus Williams, 46. She will now play both singles and doubles when the tournament begins June 29.

Williams’ last singles match came at the 2022 U.S. Open, where she lost to Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round. At the time, she said she did not want to use the word “retiring” and described herself as “evolving” away from tennis. The Guardian described Wimbledon as her first singles appearance in nearly four years after retiring from the sport at that U.S. Open.

The decision follows Williams’ return to competition in doubles during the grass-court season. She won a doubles match at Queen’s Club last week with Victoria Mboko, but the pair withdrew after Mboko suffered a knee injury in a singles match. Williams then played doubles at the Berlin Open with Karolina Muchova, losing Tuesday to Giuliana Olmos and Erin Routliffe.

Williams had not publicly committed to a singles return before the announcement. Asked in Berlin this past week whether she would take a singles wild card, she said: “That’s the question of the hour, right? I don’t know. I don’t know. I wonder why there’s … I don’t know.”

The All England Club had been distributing its wild cards through the week, and The Guardian reported that only one wild card in either singles draw remained as of Sunday morning. The women’s qualifying singles draw was set to be published Monday, requiring a decision before then.

Williams has won seven Wimbledon singles titles among her 23 Grand Slam singles championships. She also has 14 Grand Slam doubles titles, all won with Venus, including six at Wimbledon.

Her most recent Wimbledon singles appearances ended early. In 2021, she suffered a serious hamstring injury after falling on Centre Court during a first-round match. In 2022, she lost in the first round to Harmony Tan, then ranked No. 115. The Guardian reported that Williams has not won a singles match at Wimbledon since 2019.

At the 2022 U.S. Open, Williams defeated then-world No. 2 Anett Kontaveit before losing to Tomljanovic in three sets. Her return to Wimbledon singles now gives her another appearance at the tournament where she has had some of the most successful results of her career.

Williams has spent the week training on the grass courts of the All England Club, The Guardian reported. After her doubles loss in Berlin, she said she was satisfied with her level.