Serena Williams Announces Stunning Comeback Nearly Four Years After Retirement

 Serena Williams is returning to professional tennis at age 44 after nearly four years away from the sport.

The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion has accepted a wild card invitation to play doubles at the upcoming Queen’s Club grass-court tournament in London, the WTA Tour announced Monday.

Williams also made a post on social media with the caption, “Guess everybody heard the news.” The post had a video with her phone ringing, during which she said, “I gotta change my number.”

The Queen’s Club tournament starts next Monday and the WTA said Williams will play “with a partner to be announced in due course.”

A return on grass will raise speculation that Williams also plans to compete at Wimbledon, which starts June 28. She’s won seven singles titles at the All England Club.

Williams has not competed since bidding farewell at the 2022 U.S. Open. At the time, Williams said she didn’t want to use the word “retiring” and instead declared that she was “evolving” away from tennis.

“Serena brought the game to another level and it is incredible for the sport that she’s pushing the boundaries and coming back,” said Martina Navratilova, the previous oldest former No. 1 to launch a comeback, at 43 years, 10 months.

“To many of the younger players, they never had the opportunity to play her; some may have never watched her on television so this will be a new and exciting experience,” Navratilova said.

Williams, who has also won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles, became eligible to compete in February after re-registering with tennis’ mandatory anti-doping program six months earlier — which is the first step toward a comeback.

Four-time major winner Naomi Osaka, who beat Williams in the 2018 U.S. Open final for her first major title, was excited at the prospect.

“It will bring people to watch tennis,” Osaka said Thursday at the French Open. “I’m going to be tuned into the first match, for sure. I think a lot of people are. Everyone knows Serena and Venus were my role models growing up, so it’s going to be cool to see her on the grounds again.”

Williams recently posted a video on Instagram showing herself training on a hard court with her daughter: “Rumor has it…I got a new trainer,” Williams said in the post.

Williams’ second daughter was born in 2023.

When it was revealed last year that Williams had signed up to return to the drug-testing pool, she wrote on social media: “Omg yall I’m NOT coming back. This wildfire is crazy.”