Serena Williams officially retired from tennis at the 2022 US Open, when she lost in the third round. Queen Elizabeth II died a few days later. I’m not saying the two things are related, but I’ve always had my suspicions. Serena’s retirement was a really big deal, and she even wrote about it in a Vogue cover story. At the time, she was the Open Era leader in Slam titles with 23, but Novak Djokovic got to 24 Slams one year after Serena’s retirement. One of the big reasons why Serena retired was because she wanted to have another baby. Soon after the 2022 US Open, she got pregnant with her second, and in August 2023, she gave birth to daughter Adira Ohanian. Serena had a lot of trouble losing the baby weight the second time, which is why she’s made a big deal about going on a GLP-1, Ro. She’s lost a lot of weight since going on Ro.

Well, rumors have been circulating all year that Serena, now 44 years old, wants to stage a tennis comeback. Reportedly, Serena went back into the doping-test pool last year, because people have to test clean for six months before they can play in professional tournaments. Serena has tested clean for over six months, and some wondered if she would possibly come back to play in Miami in March, or maybe Roland Garros (which is happening now). Well, Serena didn’t come back for those tournaments… but she’s coming back for the grass season!! She’s taken a wildcard in doubles for a pre-Wimbledon WTA event at Queen’s Club. She’s going to play dubs with Victoria “Vicky” Mboko, a Black teenage sensation from Canada. It’s more than likely that Serena has requested a Wimbledon wildcard for doubles too, and I think Wimbledon would be hard pressed to deny her one. On Monday, when the news of Serena’s Queen’s Club WC came out, Serena posted this on her social media:

Good news travels fast. pic.twitter.com/R7x7EFPUJ8

— Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) June 1, 2026

A Nike commercial? We’re so back. I’m looking forward to seeing her, honestly. I also think doubles is a good way for Serena and everyone else to gauge her fitness, movement, mentality and groundstrokes. Like, it will be pretty clear very quickly if she’s just doing this for fun or if she’s really trying to stage a bigger comeback. Women’s tennis is in an interesting place these days. Aryna Sabalenka is by far the most dominant player – and I think Aryna is the current favorite for Roland Garros – but there is enough variety and inconsistency on the women’s tour to make it interesting. Serena played several of the girls in the current top ten already and she already beat them, including Aryna. There’s part of me that wonders if Serena saw Roger Federer play (and win) a tiebreak in Australia this year and she thought, “you know what, I can do that too.” God, what I wouldn’t give for Rog to come back too, and then Rog and Serena could play Mixed Doubles at all of the Slams.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Backgrid.