Serena Williams to return to Wimbledon doubles with Venus

LONDON: Serena Williams has been granted a wildcard for the Wimbledon doubles tournament and is set to play alongside her sister Venus, marking her first appearance at the All England Club since 2022.

The American great made her return to competitive tennis last week at Queen's Club, where she won her opening doubles match with Victoria Mboko. Serena, 44, had been away from professional tennis for four years after saying she was

evolving away

from the sport following the 2022 US Open.

Her return was announced shortly before the Wimbledon warm-up event at Queen's, where she was keen to play in front of her two young daughters. She could not go beyond one match there after Mboko withdrew because of injury. Serena is now scheduled to continue her comeback in the Berlin Open doubles event this week with Karolina Muchova.

The Williams sisters have enjoyed major success together at Wimbledon, winning the doubles title six times. Their last triumph came on their most recent appearance as a pair at the tournament 10 years ago.

There had been speculation Serena might also seek to play singles at Wimbledon, which begins on June 29, but her name did not appear on the list of wildcard entries for that draw. After such a long spell away from the tour, she does not hold a ranking high enough for direct entry and has therefore needed wildcards to compete.

Serena is a seven-time Wimbledon singles champion, but she has not won a Grand Slam title since defeating Venus in the 2017 Australian Open final. Her last Wimbledon singles crown came in 2016, and each of her last four Grand Slam finals ended in defeat.

Her outing at Queen's was her first match in 1,375 days and drew widespread attention. The comeback had prompted debate over whether returning to competition was the right move, but she showed flashes of the power game that defined her career, producing a strong serve and heavy groundstrokes in front of a full crowd.

Venus, a five-time Wimbledon singles champion, has lost all seven of her singles matches this year. The 45-year-old now plays only occasionally, though she did win a doubles match in Madrid in April alongside Katie Boulter.

In other Wimbledon wildcard announcements, Stan Wawrinka, the three-time Grand Slam champion who is due to retire at the end of the season, and Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov were awarded places in the men's singles draw. Maja Chwalinska, who reached the French Open final earlier this month, also received a wildcard for the women's singles.