{"id":15502,"date":"2026-06-01T21:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T15:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/tennis-great-serena-williams-44-set-to-return-four-years-after-playing-her-last-competitive-match-tennis-news\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T21:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T15:46:12","slug":"tennis-great-serena-williams-44-set-to-return-four-years-after-playing-her-last-competitive-match-tennis-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/tennis-great-serena-williams-44-set-to-return-four-years-after-playing-her-last-competitive-match-tennis-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis great Serena Williams, 44, set to return four years after playing her last competitive match | Tennis News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-articlebody=\"1\"><video-embed value=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"ihgno clearfix  \">\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-131445472,imgsize-75486,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/serena-williams-ap-photo.jpg\" alt=\"Tennis great Serena Williams, 44, set to return four years after playing her last competitive match\" title=\"Serena Williams (AP Photo)\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Ta7d_ img_cptn\"><span title=\"Serena Williams (AP Photo)\">Serena Williams (AP Photo)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>NEW DELHI: Tennis great Serena Williams is set to make a surprise return to professional tennis nearly four years after her last competitive match. <span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"1\"\/>The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion has accepted a wild card entry for the women&#8217;s doubles event at Queen&#8217;s Club, set to be hosted between June 6 and June 21, 2026, marking her first tournament appearance since the 2022 US Open.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"4\"\/><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"6\"\/>The announcement was accompanied by a social media post from Williams, who shared a video of herself on court with the caption, &#8220;Good news travels fast.&#8221; <span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"8\"\/>The post quickly sparked excitement among tennis fans who have been waiting for signs of a comeback.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"10\"\/>Speculation about Williams&#8217;s return had been growing since December, when it emerged that she had re-entered tennis&#8217; anti-doping programme, a necessary step for any player planning a comeback to the tour.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"14\"\/>The 44-year-old is reportedly set to partner rising Canadian star Victoria Mboko in the doubles competition, giving fans a chance to see one of the sport&#8217;s greatest champions back in action.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"16\"\/>Williams said Queen&#8217;s Club was the ideal venue for her return because of her long and successful history on grass courts.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"18\"\/>&#8220;Queen&#8217;s Club feels like the perfect place to begin this next chapter,&#8221; said Williams.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"20\"\/>&#8220;Grass has given me some of the most meaningful moments of my career, and I&#8217;m excited to be back competing on one of the sport&#8217;s most iconic stages.&#8221;<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"22\"\/>Her comeback is expected to be one of the biggest talking points of the grass-court season as tennis fans eagerly await her return to competition.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"24\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/sports\/tennis\/top-stories\/tennis-great-serena-williams-44-set-to-return-four-years-after-playing-her-last-competitive-match\/articleshow\/131444974.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Serena Williams (AP Photo) NEW DELHI: Tennis great Serena Williams is set to make a surprise return to professional tennis nearly four years after her last competitive match. The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion has accepted a wild card entry for the women&#8217;s doubles event at Queen&#8217;s Club, set to be hosted between June 6 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}