Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
American legend Serena Williams is to make a stunning return to singles tennis, attempting to reclaim her Wimbledon title at the age of 44, nearly four years since her last match at the US Open.
Seven-times champion Williams was handed the final women’s singles wildcard by the All England Club on Sunday evening (Monday AEST) in a wholly unexpected development.
The woman considered perhaps the greatest player of all-time had already been assured of a shock return to the championships for the first time in four years by accepting a doubles wildcard to play alongside elder sister, 46-year-old Venus Williams.
But the singles news came quite out of the blue, with Wimbledon declaring on its Instagram account: “This is not a drill.”
It means the 23-time grand slam singles champion will return to court on either a week next Monday or Tuesday at the All England Club to play a match which will be watched with fascination around the world.
Her last singles match at Wimbledon came as a wildcard in 2022 when she lost to Frenchwoman Harmony Tan in round one.
After that year’s US Open, when she lost to Australian Ajla Tomljanovic in her final match, she declared she would “evolve away from tennis”, while never actually ever declaring she was officially retired.
She returned amid much fanfare to make a winning return to the doubles court at the Queen’s Club Championship alongside Victoria Mboko a fortnight ago but an injury to the young Canadian halted their progress.
It’s now 28 years since Williams first made her appearance at on the grass courts of SW19, when she reached the third round, and four years later, she became champion, beating Venus in the final, going on to spend a combined total of 319 weeks as the WTA world No.1.
