Serena Williams is making her return to the tennis court at Wimbledon after a year of absence. The 23-time Grand Slam winner announced her participation in the third Grand Slam tournament of the year on Tuesday.
Forty-year-old Williams dropped out of Wimbledon last year with a leg injury and has not played a game since. That will change at the end of June at Wimbledon, the tournament that she has already won seven times.
On social media, the American posted a photo of her white tennis shoes on the grass on Tuesday. She captioned the photo: “SW and SW19, we have a date. See you there.” ‘SW’ stands for Serena Williams and ‘SW19’ indicates the Wimbledon postcode.
Due to her injury, Williams has dropped to 1,208th place in the world ranking. Despite this, as a player with protected status, she claimed a place in the Wimbledon main draw.
Serena Williams dropped out of Wimbledon last year and hasn’t played a match since.
Serena Williams dropped out of Wimbledon last year and hasn’t played a match since. Photo: Getty Images
Williams chases Court’s record
At Wimbledon there are no points to earn for the world ranking. This was decided by the ATP and WTA in response to Wimbledon’s decision to ban Russian and Belarusian tennis players because of the war in Ukraine.
Williams can continue the hunt for the record for most Grand Slam titles in women’s tennis at the grass tournament in London. That record is held by Margaret Court, who has 24 titles, one more than Williams.
Wimbledon is scheduled from June 27 to July 10. The women’s tournament will in any case get a new winner: title holder Ashleigh Barty put an end to her career in March at the age of 25.