Serena to play doubles with sister Venus at Wimbledon

She will play at Wimbledon for the first time since 2022

LONDON:

Serena Williams will play at Wimbledon for the first time since 2022 after the American legend was given a wildcard to play the doubles event with her sister Venus on Tuesday.

Williams made a sensational return to tennis last week when she won her first-round doubles match at Queen's Club with partner Victoria Mboko.

The 44-year-old had not played professional tennis for four years after saying she was "evolving away" from the sport following the 2022 US Open.

But the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion was keen to play in front of her two young daughters and made the shock announcement of her return just prior to the Wimbledon warm-up event at Queen's.

Williams was unable to play more than one match at Queen's after Mboko pulled out with an injury, but she is due to continue her remarkable comeback in the Berlin Open doubles alongside Karolina Muchova this week.

The Williams sisters are six-time doubles champions at Wimbledon, winning their last title on their most recent appearance together a decade ago.

Following speculation that Serena would be tempted to play in the singles at Wimbledon, which starts on June 29, the American was absent from the list of wildcard entries into that part of the tournament.

After so long away, she had no ranking to secure automatic entry into tournaments, leaving her to rely on wildcards.

Williams is a seven-time Wimbledon singles champion, but she hasn't won a Grand Slam crown since beating Venus to win the 2017 Australian Open.

Her most recent Wimbledon singles title came in 2016, with her last four Grand Slam finals ending in defeat.

There is still one singles wildcard place for Wimbledon to be announced.

Williams' return at Queen's for her first match in 1,375 days captured the imagination of the sporting world.

Her decision to pick up a racquet in a competitive setting for the first time since losing to Ajla Tomljanovic at the 2022 US Open had sparked questions about the wisdom of the move.

But it was like she had never been away as Williams produced her trademark thunderous serve and fearsome ground-strokes to the delight of a capacity crowd.

Five-time Wimbledon singles champion Venus has been beaten in all seven of her singles matches this year.

The 45-year-old, who plays only occasionally in the twilight of her career, won a doubles match with Katie Boulter in Madrid in April.

Elsewhere in the Wimbledon wildcard list, three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka, who will retire at the end of the season, and Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov were given entry into the men's singles.

Maja Chwalinska, who reached the French Open final earlier in June, was handed a wildcard for the women's singles.