After almost 4 years away from the WTA Tour, Serena Williams will formally return to tennis on the HSBC Championships at London’s Queen’s Membership subsequent week.
The 23-time main champion confirmed her return after months of hypothesis final week after re-entering the Worldwide Tennis Integrity Authority (ITIA) drug-testing pool, a situation of having the ability to compete once more.
The 44-year-old Williams initially denied returning – “Oh no, I am not coming again,” he posted in December – however made the information clear on social media on Monday along with Nike and the match.
“We really feel the Queen’s Membership is the right place to start our subsequent chapter,” Williams stated in an announcement despatched by the conference. “Glass has given me a number of the most significant moments of my profession, and I am thrilled to be competing once more on one of many sport’s most iconic levels.”
She is going to solely play doubles with Victoria Mboko on this match. So, earlier than the match begins in London, here is every part we all know and do not find out about Williams’ return to the game.
When is her first recreation?
The five hundred-level match has not but introduced the draw or order of matches, however the first spherical of doubles is scheduled to start on Monday, June eighth and finish on Wednesday, June tenth. Different pairs within the 16-team doubles discipline embrace prime seeds Anna Danilina and Aleksandra Krunic, Storm Hunter and Zhang Shuai, and Cristina Bussa and Nicole Melichar-Martinez.
Has anybody seen her play just lately?
Even her sister Venus, commentating on TNT’s French Open, stated she hadn’t seen a lot of Williams on the court docket currently, though present world No. 79 Alicia Parks stated they practiced collectively as much as thrice every week throughout their keep in Florida in the course of the winter and early spring.
“She’s doing nice,” Parks instructed Tennis Majors in February. “So I feel she’ll get it executed on tour.”
A clip from a observe session in early March went viral on-line.
And on Thursday, footage of Williams’ first observe session at Queen’s Membership almost broke the web. Within the posted clip, Williams is seen hitting and transferring all around the court docket, wanting expert at hitting the ball, and her signature backhand is on nice show.
That is actual life. @serenawilliams is again! 🐐 #HSBCChampionship pic.twitter.com/hXsaabVAkB
— HSBC Championship (@QueensTennis) June 4, 2026
Who’s her doubles companion Victoria Mboko?
Williams will play alongside 19-year-old Canadian Mboko on the Queen’s membership. When requested ultimately week’s French Open, Mboko, who’s presently ninth within the singles rankings, didn’t need to verify preliminary stories {that a} partnership between the 2 was imminent, saying he would as a substitute let Williams make an announcement “at her personal discretion.” Nevertheless, she was effusive in her reward, even saying that Williams was her “idol” and that they generally texted one another.
“You recognize, me and Serena keep up a correspondence, which is de facto, actually nice as a result of I actually respect her,” Mboko stated. “I imply, even the truth that she is aware of me is so thrilling.”
And Mboko appeared thrilled to publicly verify their pairing in a photograph from Queen’s Membership on Thursday. “The Queen is again,” Mboko wrote on Instagram. “It is an honor to share the court docket with one of many best athletes of all time this week, and I am much more excited to play doubles with him! Tennis is fairly particular.”
Born after Williams had already received seven main titles in singles, Mboko has received two WTA trophies in her profession, most notably final summer season’s Canadian Open on the 1000 degree, however has by no means received a doubles title. Nevertheless, she reached two junior main doubles finals, together with at Wimbledon in 2022.
Why is Williams coming again?
Williams hasn’t stated a lot about that at this level, and even given any particulars about his return. Nevertheless, she left the door open to a doable return when she steps down in 2022.
In reality, she did not even need to use the phrase “retirement,” selecting as a substitute to say she supposed to “evolve” from tennis. In an essay for Vogue journal wherein she introduced that the 2022 US Open will probably be her final match, she cited her need to start out a household, however made it clear she would not need to step away from the game.
“I did not need to admit to myself or anybody that I needed to step away from tennis,” Williams wrote. “…One factor I do not need to do is deliver this to the floor. I do know lots of people are excited and looking out ahead to retirement, however I actually want I may have felt that method too.”
And she or he lamented that her determination was one which her male colleagues did not should undergo.
“If I have been a person, I would not be scripting this, as a result of I’d be competing and successful whereas my spouse was doing guide labor to develop our household,” Williams stated. “If I had that chance, I may have been extra Tom Brady. Do not get me incorrect, I really like being a girl and I cherished each second of being pregnant with[my first daughter]Olympia. … However I am turning 41 this month, so one thing’s gotta give.”
And whereas it was clear that she was targeted on her household and off-court pursuits and pursuits, Williams hesitated when requested by a reporter in the course of the third spherical of the 2022 U.S. Open if this could “undoubtedly” be her final match.
It was fairly imprecise. she stated with a smile. “You by no means know, so I will go away it imprecise.”
She was motivated to equal Margaret Court docket’s all-time main singles report at age 24 throughout her first being pregnant and return from maternity go away, however she spoke brazenly about her disappointment at not having the ability to obtain that purpose. However Williams stated in an interview with longtime sponsor Nike that this return is just not about successful or shedding.
“I simply need to have enjoyable,” she stated. “I need to journey and have enjoyable. I’ve at all times loved tennis, however this time it is from a special angle. Each time I watch a match, I miss it. I miss that environment. I miss the courts.”
Williams will probably present extra particulars about his determination to return within the coming days and weeks, and can little question be requested about it at a press convention corresponding to on the Queen’s Membership.
What’s subsequent for Williams after this match?
Most likely one of the best query of all. Williams has offered few particulars about her return at the moment, but it surely was introduced on Friday that she is going to compete in doubles on the Berlin Tennis Open later this month.
“Each match I add to my schedule now feels particular, and Berlin is not any exception,” Williams stated in asserting the match. “We’re excited to play in entrance of our German followers and proceed to construct momentum all through the grass court docket season.”
The doubles companions for this match haven’t but been determined. The match begins on June fifteenth.
Past that, it’s extensively assumed that Williams might be taking part in at Wimbledon, the place she has received seven singles titles and 6 doubles titles with Venus. The match begins on June twenty ninth. Williams presently doesn’t have a rating, so she is going to want a wild card to qualify for the tournaments she desires to take part in. Wildcards for grass court docket majors might be introduced on June seventeenth. As a former champion, she shouldn’t have any drawback getting such a bid.
If Williams desires to play yet another tune-up match earlier than Wimbledon, grass-court occasions might be held at Dangerous Homburg and Eastbourne the week earlier than the primary occasion begins on the All England Membership. She competed within the doubles draw at Eastbourne in 2022, reaching the semi-finals with companion Ons Jabour, however was pressured to withdraw because of Jabour’s knee harm.
After all, many questions nonetheless stay. Will she play singles someplace? Will she stick with Mboko or companion with another person? Will she and Venus workforce up at Wimbledon? As with a lot about this extremely anticipated return, we simply do not know but.
