Nearly four years after stepping away from competitive tennis, one of the greatest athletes in the history of the sport is set to make her long-awaited return. 44-year-old American legend Serena Williams has officially accepted a wildcard into the women’s doubles draw of the Queen’s Club WTA 500 tournament, which kicks off in London on June 8, marking her first professional appearance since the 2022 US Open.
While tournament organizers have not yet officially named Williams’ doubles partner, widespread tennis reporting points to 19-year-old Canadian rising star Victoria Mboko, a top-10 ranked young player who already called Williams her “idol” in comments after her 2025 French Open run last week. Mboko advanced to the third round of Roland Garros before falling to former Australian Open champion Madison Keys on Saturday, and has openly spoken about the influence Williams has had on her own career.
Williams first stepped back from professional tennis in 2022, closing out a 27-year career that redefined women’s tennis. Her trophy cabinet boasts a record-breaking 23 Grand Slam singles titles in the Open Era — the second-most of all time behind only Margaret Court’s 24 — alongside 14 Grand Slam doubles titles won alongside her sister Venus, with the pair maintaining a perfect undefeated record in major doubles finals. Across her career, she spent 319 weeks atop the WTA singles world rankings, claimed 73 WTA singles titles, and earned three Olympic doubles gold medals to add to her 2012 London singles gold. She completed a career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles, and won every major singles tournament at least three times. Even after returning from maternity leave following the birth of her first daughter in 2017, Williams reached four Grand Slam finals and climbed back into the world top 10 rankings. Seven of her Grand Slam singles titles came at Wimbledon, the iconic grass-court major that kicks off just three weeks after the Queen’s Club tournament.
Rumors of a comeback began circulating last year, when Williams’ name unexpectedly appeared on the official roster for tennis anti-doping testing. She initially denied plans to return, but speculation grew dramatically when the International Tennis Integrity Agency added her to its reinstatement list this past February. Williams fueled the rumors this week when she shared a clip of herself walking onto a competitive tennis court on social media, captioning the post: “Guess everybody heard the news” followed by the line “Good news travels fast.”
In a statement confirming her entry, Williams called Queen’s Club the ideal venue to launch this new chapter of her tennis journey. “Grass gave me some of the most meaningful moments of my entire career,” she said. “I’m incredibly excited to be back competing on one of the most iconic stages in our sport.”
Off the court, Williams has kept a busy life since retiring from full-time competition: she welcomed her second daughter in 2023, and has become a prominent business voice, most recently stepping into a spokesperson role for weight health company Ro, which distributes GLP-1 weight management medications including Wegovy and Zepbound. Last year, she opened up about losing 14 kilograms over eight months, describing her excess weight as an “opponent” to overcome, and told reporters she was training up to five hours a day to prepare for a half-marathon, building endurance far beyond what she had hit earlier in her life.
The announcement has already sent ripples through the global tennis community, with many speculating that the Queen’s Club appearance is a precursor to a wildcard entry into Wimbledon, where Williams has claimed seven singles and seven doubles titles throughout her career. Three-time Wimbledon champion and tennis commentator John McEnroe told TNT Sports that a deep run at the All England Club in singles seems like the logical next step for the legend. “If Serena Williams, the greatest of all time, is coming back, she’s not coming back just to enjoy playing,” McEnroe said. “She wants to win another major — that’s the only reason I can think she’d want to play tennis again.”
BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller noted that the full scope of Williams’ comeback plans remains unconfirmed. There has been no official confirmation that she will enter the Wimbledon singles draw, though with the US Open still two months away from Queen’s Club, Fuller suggested that the temptation of a singles run may prove too strong for the still-competitive champion to resist. Other speculation has centered on a possible final doubles pairing with her sister Venus, who will turn 46 the day before the Queen’s Club tournament begins. Regardless of her end goals, Williams’ return is already one of the most highly anticipated storylines of the 2025 grass court season, with fans already lining up to secure tickets to see the legend back in action.