Tennis stars rejoice as Serena Williams announces competitive comeback

Serena Williams has shaken up the tennis world by announcing her competitive return to the game after a nearly four-year absence.

The 23-time Grand Slam winner and mother of two said on Monday that she will compete in women’s doubles at this month’s Queen’s Club Championships in the United Kingdom, where media reported she will play with 19-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko.

The 44-year-old American great received a wildcard entry for the competition, which is seen as a warm-up for Wimbledon, the year’s third Grand Slam.

“I’m very happy. Me and Serena have stayed in touch, which is really, really nice because I really look up to her,” Mboko said at the French Open last week.

Williams ended months of speculation over a rumoured return with a cheeky social media video captioned: “Good news travels fast.”

‘It will bring people to watch tennis’

Former world number one Lindsay Davenport said she believes Williams could make an appearance at her home Grand Slam, the US Open, in a couple of months.

“It seems like she’s trying to work her way up maybe to the US Open, and those fans would be so ready to see her back on a singles court there,” Davenport said.

Williams won seven Wimbledon titles and six at the US Open before stepping away from the game in 2022. In doubles, she won six titles at Wimbledon and two at the US Open – all with her older sister Venus Williams.

Four-time major champion Naomi Osaka, who beat Serena Williams in the 2018 US Open final for her first major title, was excited at the prospect.

“It will bring people to watch tennis,” Osaka said. “I’m going to be tuned in to the first match, for sure. I think a lot of people are. Everyone knows Serena and Venus were my role models growing up, so it’s going to be cool to see her on the grounds again.”

Osaka was joined by several current players in sharing their excitement at the news of Serena Williams’s return.

“She’s a legend. It’s inspiring to see,” top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka said at the ongoing French Open. “I’m excited to see her play and probably face her. … It’s very good news for tennis.”

Coco Gauff, who looked up to Serena Williams growing up, chimed in as well.

“One of my biggest regrets was not being able to play her,” the world number four said.

Gauff also commented on Williams’s Instagram post, saying, “Dreams come true.”

Singles return on the cards?

Fellow American and former champion John McEnroe suggested Williams could compete in singles at Wimbledon, which starts on June 28 .

“She’s not getting any younger, but she’s Serena Williams, so I bet you she would tell me about wanting to win the whole damn thing,” McEnroe said in Paris.

The Queen’s Club tournament starts on Monday, and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) said Williams will play “with a partner to be announced in due course”.

“Queen’s Club feels like the perfect place to begin this next chapter,” Williams said in a statement. “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.”

Davenport said some current women’s players travelled to Florida to practise with Williams recently.

“I don’t think anyone’s admitted to that, but I do know that some of them were,” Davenport said. “So I think she has kind of a handle on where the level is. But I don’t know if she’s been playing a two-hour singles match, right? We’ll have to see how she can handle that physically.”

Williams, who has won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles overall in her storied career, became eligible to compete in February after reregistering for a mandatory antidoping programme six months earlier – the first step towards a comeback.

Davenport admitted that her former opponent would face a tough challenge.

“It’s not going to be easy. If anyone could do it, certainly, it could be her.”

Grand Slam social media accounts used more playful language to celebrate her return, using the goat emoji to symbolise her status as the “greatest of all time”.

Williams joins list of champions making comebacks

Williams is not the only top-level athlete with unfinished business as advancements in training and medical care have allowed for longer careers across several sports.

Seven-time track gold medallist Allyson Felix said this year that she would try to make the US squad in what would be her sixth Olympics. She is aiming to secure a spot on the mixed 4x400m relay team at the 2028 Los Angeles Games despite having previously said the Tokyo Games would be her last.

“It’s just ⁠⁠about testing the limits, kind of an experiment of what’s still left there,” the 40-year-old Felix, who gave birth to her second child in 2024, told the NBC TV network’s Today show last month.

Her fellow American Lindsey Vonn became the oldest downhill skier to win a World Cup race in December when she mounted a comeback after knee-replacement surgery.

Vonn, whose Milano-Cortina Olympics campaign ended abruptly with a horrific crash, was among the first top-level athletes to offer her encouragement to Williams on social media.

Vonn and Felix both celebrated Williams’s comeback announcement on social media.

In tennis, longtime Williams friend Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark made it to the fourth round at the US Open in 2023 and 2024 during her own comeback campaign while older sister Venus became the oldest WTA singles match winner since 2004 when she returned from a 16-month absence last year.

Serena Williams’s “return is an expression of her passion for competition”, WTA Chairwoman Valerie Camillo said in a statement on Monday. “I cannot wait to see her face a new generation.”

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