Serena Williams is going to play at Wimbledon, after all. The All England Club announced on Tuesday that Williams was awarded a wild-card entry for singles, marking her return to Grand Slam action after a year away.
The owner of a professional era-record 23 Grand Slam singles trophies, and as big a star as tennis ever has seen, is going to tune up by playing doubles at a smaller grass-court event first, teaming with Ons Jabeur at Eastbourne, England, next week.
Main-draw play at Wimbledon begins on June 27.
Williams has not competed anywhere since getting injured during the first set of her first-round match at the All England Club in 2021. And her name did not appear on the women’s singles entry list released by the grass-court Grand Slam tournament earlier this month.
But Williams was among a half-dozen women given a spot in the singles draw on Tuesday, along with five British players: Katie Boulter, Jodie Burrage, Sonay Kartal, Yuriko Miyazaki and Katie Swan.
Two other women will get invitations “in due course,” the All England Club said.
Seven of the eight men’s wild-card berths were also announced, including one for three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka.
Earlier in the day, Williams posted a photo of her white shoes on what appears to be a grass court and the message: “SW and SW19. It’s a date. 2022. See you there. Let’s Go.”
“SW” are her initials, of course, and “SW19” is the postal code for Wimbledon.
The 40-year-old American has won seven of her singles trophies at Wimbledon, the first in 2002 and most recently in 2016. Williams was the runner-up there in 2018 and 2019 (the tournament was canceled in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic).
In 2021, Williams lost her footing on the slick grass and then her right leg buckled, leading to just the second mid-match retirement at any Grand Slam tournament of her career and first since 1998.
With the lack of activity since then, Williams – who first reached No. 1 in July 2002 – is 1,208th in the WTA rankings this week. That is why she was not automatically placed in the Wimbledon field.
U.S. OPEN: The U.S. Open will allow tennis players from Russia and Belarus to compete this year despite the ongoing war in Ukraine, which prompted Wimbledon to ban those athletes.
U.S. Tennis Association CEO and Executive Director Lew Sherr, whose group runs the U.S. Open, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that the USTA Board decided to let Russians and Belarusians enter the tournament because of “concern about holding the individual athletes accountable for the actions and decisions of their governments.”
Sherr said athletes from Russia and Belarus will play at Flushing Meadows under a neutral flag – an arrangement that’s been used at various tennis tournaments around the world, including the French Open, which ended June 5.
The U.S. Open starts on Aug. 29 in New York.
Since Russia began its attacks on Ukraine in February, Russian athletes have been prevented from taking part in many sports, including soccer’s World Cup qualifying playoffs. Belarus has aided Russia in the war.
Russia also was held out of two international team events in tennis in which it was the reigning champion: the Billie Jean King Cup and Davis Cup.
The All England Club, where main-draw play for Wimbledon starts on June 27, announced in April it would bar all Russians and Belarusians from its fields – which means current men’s No. 1, Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, is not eligible to participate. Medvedev is the defending champion at the U.S. Open.
Wimbledon’s ban drew immediate criticism from the WTA and ATP, along with some prominent players, such as defending champion Novak Djokovic.
VENETO OPEN: Italian player Sara Errani upset second-seeded Madison Brengle in the opening round at Gaiba, Italy, beating the American 6-2, 3-6, 7-5.
The 35-year-old Errani, who had a career-high ranking of No. 5 but is now 213th, double-faulted on her first match point and wasted another three in her next service game before winning with a lob.
Errani will next face Lucrezia Stefanini, who beat Vitalia Diatchenko 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2.
Top-seeded Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium advanced by beating Italian wild-card entry Cristiana Ferrando 6-4, 6-1.
HALLE OPEN: Second-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Benjamin Bonzi 7-6 (1), 1-6, 6-3 in the first round at Halle, Germany, when there were also wins for Felix Auger-Aliassime and Nick Kyrgios.
Tsitsipas had to fight hard to beat the 52nd-ranked Bonzi in 1 hour, 55 minutes to take his tour-leading tally to 36 wins in 2022.
Tsitsipas is bidding for his second title of the year and his first on grass. The Greek player next faces Kyrgios, the Australian wild card entry who defeated Daniel Altmaier 6-3, 7-5.
The fourth-seeded Auger-Aliassime defeated Marcos Giron 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 for a second-round clash with sixth-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta.
BERLIN OPEN: Ons Jabeur started her grass-court season with a win as she cruised past Karolina Muchova 6-3, 6-3, and Andrea Petkovic delighted the home fans by upsetting Garbine Muguruza.
Playing for the first time since a shock first-round loss at the French Open, the fourth-ranked Jabeur put in an assured performance as she saved all four of the break points.
Petkovic defeated fifth-seeded Muguruza 7-6 (8), 6-4 for her first win over a top 10 player since beating Petra Kvitova at the U.S. Open in 2019.
The German will next face Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus for a place in the quarterfinals.
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