Serena Williams will play Wimbledon after being given a singles wildcard

Serena Williams will make her return to Grand Slam tennis at Wimbledon this month after being given a wildcard entry to the singles.

She will make her return to tennis playing doubles at Eastbourne alongside Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur in the week before Wimbledon then compete at the All England Club, where she is a seven-time singles champion.

Serena Williams

Williams’ elder sister Venus, who has won the singles at Wimbledon five times and the doubles six times alongside Serena, was not in the initial batch of singles wildcards announced on Tuesday.

However, the 41-year-old, who has not played on the WTA Tour since August, could still be given one of the remaining two spots for the tournament, which begins on 27 June.

Serena – who earlier on Tuesday had posted an image of her trainers on grass, captioning it: “SW and SW19. It’s a date” – is currently ranked 1,208 because of her prolonged inactivity.

She won the last of her Wimbledon titles in 2016, but reached the final in 2018 and 2019 after returning from maternity leave. She last won a Grand Slam singles title at the 2017 Australian Open.

The younger Williams first played in the singles event at Wimbledon as a 16-year-old in 1998 and has only missed the tournament three times since, including when pregnant with daughter Olympia in 2017.

She reached the 2018 final, where she lost to Angelique Kerber, in just her fourth tournament back after giving birth.

However, her most recent attempt to equal Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles ended in heartbreak on Centre Court last year, when she was forced to retire injured against Aliaksandra Sasnovich after slipping.

The injury kept her out of the US Open and Australian Open that followed and there were doubts that she would return to the WTA Tour at all.

Her long-time coach Patrick Mouratoglou has since started working with 2019 Wimbledon champion Simona Halep, saying in April that he had spoken to the American before taking up the position.

Williams said she was “looking forward” to playing in front of fans at Eastbourne, which is the final grass-court event in the UK before Wimbledon.

“I am excited to return to Eastbourne and be back on the grass – a surface that has been so good to me throughout my career,” she said.

“Eastbourne has a unique charm that you don’t see anywhere else on tour.”

Williams and Jabeur are not likely to play their first match before Tuesday, 21 June.

Broady, Boulter & Wawrinka given wildcards

Three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland is one of seven men to have been given a wildcard into the main draw.

Wawrinka, who is competing at Queen’s Club this week, has dropped to 290 in the rankings after struggling with injuries over the past few years.

Nottingham Open quarter-finalist Liam Broady has also been awarded one, alongside fellow Britons Jay Clarke, Alastair Gray, Paul Jubb and Ryan Peniston.

Tim van Rijthoven, who stunned new world number one Daniil Medvedev in the Libema Open final on Sunday, takes the sixth spot.

In the women’s draw, Britons Katie Boulter, Jodie Burrage, Sonay Kartal, Yuriko Miyazaki and Katie Swan will go directly into the main draw.

It will be the first time Kartal, 20, and 26-year-old Miyazaki have appeared in a Grand Slam main draw.

Boulter reached the second round at last year’s Championships, where she lost in three sets to second seed Aryna Sabalenka.

Analysis

BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller

Whispers of a Wimbledon doubles return for Serena Williams have been growing louder in recent weeks, but the singles wildcard is a very happy surprise.

Much nearer her 41st birthday than her 40th, and a year since her last match, it will be extremely difficult even for Williams to be truly competitive.

But if this is to be her last summer, then thank goodness she has made the decision to play.

It appears Williams will be travelling to the UK with Eric Hechtman, the coach of her sister Venus, who was tagged in her Instagram post.

There is currently no defending women’s champion to open Tuesday’s Centre Court programme, following the retirement of Ash Barty.

But I suspect the All England Club now need look no further. – bbc.com