After all, Serena Williams will play at Wimbledon. The All England Club announced on Tuesday that Williams had received a wildcard ticket for singles, marking his return to Grand Slam action after a year out.
The owner of a record 23 Grand Slam trophies in professional-age singles will get ready to play first in doubles at a smaller turf event, teaming with Ons Jabeur in Eastbourne, England, next week.
The main board game at Wimbledon will begin on June 27.
Williams has not competed since being injured during the first set of his first-round match at the All England Club in 2021.
Her name did not appear on the list of female singles entrants published by the turf Grand Slam tournament earlier this month, but she was among half a dozen women who received a place in the singles draw. on Tuesday, along with five British players: Katie. Boulter, Jodie Burrage, Sonay Kartal, Yuriko Miyazaki and Katie Swan.
The stage awaits you.
Our 7-time champion @serenawilliams will return to Wimbledon as a wild card this summer for her 21st appearance pic.twitter.com/7ddMAv7mOq
– Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) June 14, 2022
Two more women will receive invitations “in due course,” the All England Club said.
Seven of the eight men’s commodity spots were also announced, including one for three-time main champion Stan Wawrinka.
Earlier in the day, Williams posted a photo of his white shoes on what appears to be a turf track and the message, “SW and SW19. It’s a date. 2022. See you there. Let’s go.”
“SW” is his initials, of course, and “SW19” is the Wimbledon zip code.
The 40-year-old American has won seven of her individual trophies at Wimbledon, the first in 2002 and the last in 2016. Williams was runner-up there in 2018 and 2019. (The tournament was canceled in 2020 in cause of coronavirus). pandemic.)
2 Related
In 2021, Williams lost his footing on the smooth grass and then his right leg tightened, resulting in his second half-game retirement in any Grand Slam tournament of his career and first since 1998.
With his lack of activity since then, Williams, who reached No. 1 in July 2002, is ranked 1,208th in the WTA rankings this week. That’s why it wasn’t automatically placed on the Wimbledon field.
While Williams has been out, first Ash Barty and then Iga Swiatek entered the opening left by his prolonged absence. Barty won Wimbledon last year and the Australian Open this January to consolidate his control in the No. 1 ranking, but then abruptly retired at the age of 25 in March.
This allowed Swiatek to rise to No. 1, and has backed that new status with a 35-game winning streak that included claiming a second trophy at the French Open this month.
This unbeaten streak surpasses one of Williams ’34 games in 2013 and equals one of Williams’ older sister Venus, the longest since 2000.
Adding Williams to the support of the All England Club adds a great story for this year’s tournament, which as things stood would be filled with them, including a ban on Russian and Belarusian players due to the invasion of ‘Ukraine, the subsequent elimination of ranking points for the WTA and ATP tours, the centenary of the opening of the central track and the incorporation of the game scheduled for Sunday mid-fortnight for the first time.