SERENA WILLIAMS is set to return to professional tennis, nearly four years after she stepped away from the sport at the 2022 US Open.
The American tennis legend, who was a month shy of her 41st birthday when she said goodbye, plans to restart her iconic career at next week’s HSBC Championships, a WTA 500 event staged at the Queen’s Club in London. Williams has been awarded a wild card to play doubles, with a partner to be announced in due course, a media release said.
Over the course of her game-changing career to date, Williams, who is now 44 years, eight months old, spent 319 weeks as the WTA World No.1. Her haul of 73 singles titles, including 23 Grand Slam trophies won over an 18-season period, is the Open Era record. The winner of 39 major titles overall, as well as multiple Olympic medals, she remains the only player to achieve a ‘Career Golden Slam’ in singles and doubles and is the prize money leader in women’s sports.
“Serena is one of the greatest athletes of all-time, with a legacy that extends far beyond the court,” said Valerie Camillo, Chair of the WTA. “Her return is an expression of her passion for competition, and I cannot wait to see her face a new generation of top players. Serena is not just a great champion. She’s a successful entrepreneur, a powerful advocate for the issues that matter — and one of the most iconic women in the world. We are thrilled to welcome her back to the WTA Tour at this hugely exciting moment for women’s tennis.”
Now a mother of two daughters, Olympia (born 2017) and Adira (born 2023), Williams is already among nine singles No.1s who’ve returned to the WTA Tour after giving birth, along with Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Lindsay Davenport, Kim Clijsters, Victoria Azarenka, Caroline Wozniacki, Angelique Kerber and Naomi Osaka.
In recent years, Williams has focused on a range of entrepreneurial endeavors. Serena Ventures, a venture capital fund created in 2017, has invested in more than 85 companies, focusing on businesses founded by women or people of color. Her portfolio of sports-related investments includes stakes in WNBA team Toronto Tempo and NWSL’s Angel City FC. This year, she appeared in the Prime Video docuseries The CEO Club, also serving as an executive producer through her company, Nine Two Six Productions.
Williams played her first WTA qualifying match at Québec City in 1995 and made her main draw debut at Moscow in 1997, when she was 15. By the end of 1998, she was inside the world’s Top 20 and a Top 5 season finish in 1999 – the year she won the first of her 73 singles titles (Paris Indoors) and 23 Grand Slam titles (US Open) – meant she was on her way to redefining the game, the release said.
