Serena Williams returns to singles action at Wimbledon at the age of 44 and will play Australia’s Maya Joint in the first round after receiving the final wildcard spot into the draw.
The 23-time grand slam champion had already been confirmed to be playing doubles with her sister Venus at the tournament, having launched her comeback by playing doubles at Queen’s.
Wimbledon had previously revealed seven of the eight recipients of wildcards into the women’s singles draw, leaving the final spot as “to be announced”.
Williams last played singles four years ago at the 2022 US Open, the tournament where she seemingly waved farewell to the sport following a third-round defeat to Ajla Tomljanovic.
The seven-time Wimbledon champion last played at SW19 earlier that season, losing a first-round match to Harmony Tan in her first match in a year.
When is Serena Williams playing singles at Wimbledon?
Williams will play her first-round match against Maya Joint, the world No 53, on Tuesday 30 July. Williams has been drawn in the bottom half of the women’s singles, with players on that side of the bracket beginning their campaigns on the second day of action as defending champion Iga Swiatek opens play on Centre Court.
While the order of play for Tuesday is yet to be confirmed, seven-time Wimbledon champion Williams is likely be scheduled on Centre Court as one of sport’s greatest champions returns to action. We know Swiatek will play in the opening match, beginning at 1:30pm BST, and that is likely to be followed by Jack Draper’s first-round blockbuster with Taylor Fritz.
Williams could be in action on Tuesday evening.
When is Serena Williams playing doubles at Wimbledon with Venus?
The Williams sisters last played doubles together at the 2022 US Open. Venus Williams, who is 46, plays sporadically but still sometimes accepts wildcards into grand slams.
Together, Serena and Venus have won six Wimbledon doubles titles, a record they share with Suzanne Lenglen and Elizabeth Ryan, and their last title came in 2016.
With a combined age of 90, the Williams sisters will play their first-round doubles match on either Thursday 2 July or Friday 3 July at the start of the women’s doubles tournament.
The doubles draws are conducted electronically, and will be released in the coming days.
Serena Williams’ comeback so far
When asked during an appearance at the Berlin Open whether she would have been interested in the last remaining Wimbledon wildcard earlier this month, Williams sounded coy.
“Oh my gosh, there’s some left?” she asked. “Well I better get to practice! You think I’m ready for singles? I need to get to work.”
Williams made her long-awaited return to tennis for the first time since 2022 when she played doubles with Victoria Mboko at Queen’s in London.
The pair won their first-round match against third seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe, but injury for Mboko prevented a second.
The Canadian teenager slipped on the grass during her singles match the following day, suffering a left knee injury that forced her to withdraw from Wimbledon.
Williams then headed to Berlin and played a further doubles match with Karolina Muchova, but they lost to Giuliana Olmos and Routliffe in the first round.
She has been practicing at Wimbledon since the beginning of the week, with two doubles matches under her belt before facing Maya Joint in her first singles match in four years.
