Serena Williams has been pictured at the Queen’s Club in London as she prepares to make her dramatic return to tennis at the age of 44.
The American, a 23-time grand slam champion, shocked the tennis world last week when she announced her intention to return to the professional game.
Her first tournament will be in the women’s doubles at the HSBC Championships at the Queen’s Club in London next week, which comes almost four years after her last competitive match.
That is the tournament that traditionally takes place before Wimbledon, opening up the prospect of Williams making a return to the iconic grand slam in London which starts on June 29.
Williams has been granted a wildcard at Queen’s and will partner Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko, who idolised the American as a child.
On Thursday morning, they posed for a photo together on the venue’s famed grass courts before a practice session.
Serena Williams has been pictured at the Queen’s Club in London ahead of her return to tennis
Williams was practicing on the iconic venue’s grass courts Thursday ahead of her comeback
Alongside a GOAT emoji, Mboko captioned it: ‘The Queen is back. An honor to share the court with one of the greatest athletes of all time this week. Even more excited to play doubles together! Tennis is pretty special.’
When announcing her decision to come out of retirement, Williams posted a video showing her on court in a white Nike tennis dress and with her phone exploding with notifications in the background. ‘Guess everybody heard the news,’ the short clip read.
In a press release, Williams said: ‘Queen’s Club feels like the perfect place to begin this next chapter.
‘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.’
Williams, who shares daughters Alexis and Adira with husband Alexis Ohanian, has not played a competitive match since she was knocked out in the third round of the US Open in 2022.
At the time, she pointedly avoided using the word retirement, instead saying she was ‘evolving away’ from tennis.
But an imminent return had been touted since it was revealed in December she had re-entered tennis’ anti-doping programme – a prerequisite to play on the tour again.
When it was revealed last year that Williams had signed up to return to the drug-testing pool, she wrote on social media: ‘Omg yall I’m NOT coming back. This wildfire is crazy.’
Williams has not played competitively since losing in the third round of the US Open in 2022
Williams shares daughters Alexis and Adira with husband Alexis Ohanian, the Reddit founder
Williams, who has also won 14 grand slam doubles titles, has been eligible to play since February but has chosen the British grass-court season to step back on to the match court in what will be one of the biggest sports stories of the year.
Williams’ comeback is a huge coup for the HSBC Championships and its tournament director Laura Robson, with women’s tennis returning to the historic Queen’s venue last year for the first time since 1973.
Asked at the French Open whether the news is good for tennis, Naomi Osaka said: ‘I don’t really care about tennis. I think it’s good for me. I’ll be very entertained.
‘I think it will bring people to watch tennis, which she always does bring an audience with her. So I think it’s good.
‘I’m going to be tuned into 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.’
Coco Gauff is hoping to get the chance to face Serena, saying: ‘I did say one of my biggest regrets was not being able to play her.
‘Everybody has been hearing rumours and stuff. So, if they are true, I guess we’ll find out in a couple days based off the rumours. We’ll see, but I think it would be cool for this sport to have a legend back playing.’
