Serena Williams, 44, takes a Wimbledon wildcard back into singles

Nearly four years. That is how long it has been since Serena Williams last played a singles match, and at 44 she is about to play another: Wimbledon has handed the 23-time Grand Slam champion a wildcard into the 2026 ladies’ singles.

Williams last played singles at the 2022 US Open, a third-round exit, after which she stepped away from the tour and had her second daughter in 2023. The road back has run through grass. She returned in doubles at Queen’s this month, winning her first match alongside Victoria Mboko, and played doubles in Berlin this week with Karolina Muchova. The wildcard turns that comeback into a singles return.

The Wimbledon history is why the invitation needs little explaining. Williams has won the title seven times, from her first in 2002 to her last in 2016, part of 23 Grand Slam singles titles in all. Her most recent appearance in the singles, in 2022, ended in a first-round loss to Harmony Tan; the wildcard hands her another entrance. She and Venus Williams have also taken a wildcard into the doubles.

The All England Club announced it with three words on social media, “This is not a drill.” At 44, on the grass where she has won more than anywhere else, Serena Williams is back in a singles draw for the first time in nearly four years.

News tale, 21 June 2026, sources: NOS, All England Club