John McEnroe Serena Williams is back in the Wimbledon singles picture after Williams accepted a wild card and will make her Grand Slam return. The move sends the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion into the draw after a long absence from singles, with her recent match workload still limited.
Wimbledon and Serena Williams
Williams has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, including seven at Wimbledon: 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2016. She has also spent 319 weeks as the WTA world No 1 and has 73 singles titles on the WTA Tour, a record that frames why her singles return changes the event immediately.
She first appeared at Wimbledon in 1998 and reached the singles third round, then won her first title there in 2002 by beating Venus in the final. That history matters here because Wimbledon is not just a comeback stop for her; it is the place where her run has already defined two decades of the women’s game.
Monica Puig at Hurlingham Club
Monica Puig said at the Hurlingham Club that she was “surprised” by the wild card. Puig also said, “I had seen in an interview she had said she was going to ease her way into playing singles and I know there was some speculation that she was going to do it, I just didn't think she was going to come back that soon after hearing that interview, but I just think it's really exciting,” before adding, “This is great for tennis, great for Wimbledon as well, and I can see why she wants to come back and play singles. There's a lot of opportunity out there. We see there's a lot of upsets here and there, there's a lot that can happen in each and every tournament and Serena has the mindset of a champion”.
Puig’s reaction fits the timing. Williams said she was “evolving away” from the sport in 2022, then re-entered the anti-doping testing pool late last year before making this singles return. The path back has been short on match volume and long on significance.
Berlin with Karolina Muchova
Williams has played only two doubles matches before this singles comeback. She played one opening doubles match at Queen's Club, and Victoria Mboko's injury meant she could only play one match there. In Berlin, she and Karolina Muchova suffered a first-round loss.
That is the complication hanging over her Wimbledon return: the draw will get one of the sport’s most decorated players, but she arrives with very little recent singles rhythm and only those two doubles matches behind her. Williams and Venus are also set to play doubles together, adding another layer to the return without changing the central question around the singles field.
