{"id":370767,"date":"2025-12-25T10:38:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T10:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/370767\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T10:38:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T10:38:08","slug":"serena-williams-looks-unrecognisable-as-tennis-return-on-tennis-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/370767\/","title":{"rendered":"Serena Williams looks unrecognisable as tennis return on | Tennis | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tennis hero Serena Williams<\/a> has already stunned fans with a dramatic body transformation<\/a> this year, and she could now be eyeing a sensational return to the court. The all-time great, who has won 23 Grand Slam titles, played her final match at the US Open three years ago, where she lost a three-set marathon to Ajla Tomljanovic.<\/p>\n

Following the defeat, she bid an emotional farewell to fans<\/a> at Flushing Meadows. She\u2019s since resisted the urge to return and, in August 2023, gave birth to her second child. However, a lean-looking Williams has filed the paperwork<\/a> for a spectacular comeback to the game earlier this year. Yet she has since clarified that she is “not coming back”<\/a> to the sport<\/a> that made her name.<\/p>\n

The International Tennis Integrity Agency said that Williams, 44, was now back on the list of players who are registered for drug testing. The Michigan-born star’s name has also appeared on a document that was published by the ITIA on October 6.<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Athletic<\/a>, ITIA spokesman Adrian Bassett clarified that Williams’ inclusion in the pool didn’t automatically signal a return to action, though it did leave that door ajar.<\/p>\n

“She has notified us that she wants to be reinstated into the testing pool,” Bassett said. “I do not know if this means she is coming back, or just giving herself the option. All I can say is she’s back in the pool and therefore subject to whereabouts.”<\/p>\n

Any notion of a return was hurriedly shot down by Williams, however. She posted on social media: “I’m NOT coming back. This wildfire is crazy”.<\/p>\n

The tennis legend has never officially retired, preferring to brand her current status as an “evolution”. Every player deemed active has to undergo out-of-competition testing.<\/p>\n

Those included in the testing are required to inform the testers of their whereabouts for one hour a day. Rules state that every player who has retired has to make themselves available for testing for six months before they can compete on the court again.<\/p>\n

Talk of Williams’ return has intensified since she revealed her new look in July. Noted for her muscular frame and for overpowering opponents in her prime, Williams now cuts a ripped figure.<\/p>\n

Williams has spoken about using weight-loss drugs<\/a> in an interview with Vogue. She claimed that her use of GLP-1s through the consumer healthcare company Ro helped her get the body she wanted.<\/p>\n

She claimed that despite “training five hours a day” and “running, walking, biking, stair climbing,” she struggled to lose weight and had to “try something different”.<\/p>\n

However, she has achieved her goals, and she now looks toned with chiselled abs to match. Her Instagram<\/a> caption to her July post read: \u201cWorking out and working on my angles.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the ITIA listing set tongues wagging on a return, Williams herself has fuelled speculation<\/a> about a possible return to competition. In April, the American told Time Magazine of her belief that she could still perform at an elite level.<\/p>\n

“I miss it a lot, with all my heart,” she said. “I miss it because I’m healthy. If I couldn’t walk, or if I was so out of it, I wouldn’t miss it as much.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tennis hero Serena Williams has already stunned fans with a dramatic body transformation this year, and she could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,6415,1298,6413,85,747,555],"class_list":{"0":"post-370767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-body-transformation","11":"tag-diet","12":"tag-serena-williams","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tennis","15":"tag-weight-loss"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}