Serena Williams has expanded her highly anticipated return to professional tennis, adding a second grass-court tournament to her schedule as speculation mounts regarding a potential Wimbledon appearance.
The 44-year-old will make her comeback next week in London, partnering Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko in the doubles at the HSBC Championships at Queen’s Club.
It was confirmed on Friday that Williams will also compete in doubles at the Berlin Tennis Open, commencing on 15 June, though her partner for that event is yet to be announced.
Expressing her enthusiasm for the upcoming tournaments, the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion stated on berlintennisopen.com: “Every tournament I add to my schedule right now feels special, and Berlin is no exception. I’m excited to compete in front of the German fans and continue building momentum throughout the grass-court season.”
Williams was recently pictured practising on the grass courts at Queen’s Club alongside 19-year-old Mboko.
Her last professional match was a poignant farewell at the US Open in 2022, where she famously declared she was “evolving away” from the sport. However, whispers of a comeback intensified last year when she re-entered the anti-doping programme, a mandatory step for any player returning to the tour.
Former world number one Lindsay Davenport offered insight into Williams’s delayed return, suggesting it could have happened sooner had it not been for the six-month anti-doping protocol.
“I’d heard last year at the US Open she wanted to play mixed (doubles),” Davenport revealed. “She wasn’t able to because of the drug-testing protocol.”
Williams’s timing appears to be strategically aligned with Wimbledon, with the initial batch of wild cards for both singles and doubles set to be unveiled during the Berlin tournament. While her intentions for singles at SW19 remain a source of considerable intrigue, Davenport would be surprised if it wasn’t her ultimate objective.
Reflecting on the comeback, Davenport commented: “I think it’s great. So many stories sometimes in our sport go negative. And I love that there’s an excitement about a player returning. It’s going to be great to see her back out there. Watching her walk off the court in New York, I really thought it was goodbye.
“Some players, you think, ‘oh, they might come back’, but I never thought that that would be the case.” She added: “You have to think that she’s going to ease her way back into singles. Then all of a sudden it’s game on again for the grand slam race. So I’m here for it.”
Williams remains one Grand Slam singles title shy of Margaret Court’s all-time women’s record, having not lifted a major trophy since before the birth of her first daughter in 2017.
Davenport acknowledged the challenge ahead: “It’s not going to be easy. If anyone could do it, certainly it could be her. She looks in incredible shape, and better shape than arguably when she left the sport.”
She concluded: “Her mindset has always been to not settle for mediocrity. So I think we have to assume that she’s coming back because she feels she’s in a position where she can actually make an impact immediately in women’s tennis.”
Meanwhile, British players Katie Boulter, Fran Jones, Harriet Dart and Mika Stojsavljevic have all been granted wild cards into the singles draw at Queen’s, joining Emma Raducanu.
