Serena Williams recently shared who inspired her return to tennis.
“My daughter, Olympia, told me I should play with Venus,” Williams said to reporters at the Berlin Tennis Open on Tuesday, June 16. “She’s always right, so I was like, okay.”
In early June, Serena announced that she had officially returned after a four-year hiatus.
“Queen’s Club feels like the perfect place to begin this next chapter,” Williams said in an announcement, sent from the tournament. “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.”
Serena made a winning return to doubles last week at the Queen’s Club Championship in London. She and Canadian partner Victoria Mboko defeated Erin Routliffe (NZL) and Nicole Melichar-Martinez (USA) 7-6, 6-2. However, the duo’s campaign ended two days later when Mboko suffered a right knee injury, forcing their withdrawal.
Serena and Venus Williams will make their highly anticipated return to the Grand Slam stage after receiving a doubles wildcard for Wimbledon. The iconic duo will compete together for the first time since the 2022 US Open,
Serena and Venus didn’t just play doubles; they staged a takeover. When they stepped onto the same side of the net, the match was essentially over before the first serve. Merging Venus’s lethal, court-covering reach with Serena’s sheer, unapologetic power, they turned synchronized tennis into a masterclass in domination. With 14 Grand Slam doubles titles and a perfect 14-0 record in major finals, they are arguably the greatest doubles team ever to grace the court.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest athletes of all time, Serena has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles—the most by any player in the Open Era. A four-time Olympic gold medalist, Williams also spent 319 weeks ranked as the world No. 1. She also had a joint-record streak of 186 consecutive weeks, cementing her legacy as a transformative powerhouse both on and off the court.
Wimbledon begins on June 29.