{"id":446826,"date":"2026-01-30T06:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T06:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/446826\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T06:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T06:52:13","slug":"tennis-news-sam-smith-opinion-what-next-for-usa-great","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/446826\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis news, Sam Smith opinion, what next for USA great"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sam Smith could hardly be more definitive.<\/p>\n

“You don’t go back in the testing pool unless you’re coming back. She’s coming back.”<\/p>\n

‘She’ of course, is Serena Williams<\/a>, arguably the greatest tennis<\/a> player of all-time.<\/p>\n

Watch the Australian Open live & free on the 9Network & 9Now<\/a>. Stan Sport<\/a> is the only place to watch every match, live & on demand with centre court in 4K.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Serena Williams of the United States celebrates after winning a point.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

The 44-year-old mother has not competed since the 2022 US Open where her final singles match was a loss to Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the time, Williams said she didn’t want to use the word “retiring” and instead declared that she was “evolving” away from tennis.<\/p>\n

Entering the drug testing pool is the first step that would be required by a player seeking to come out of retirement.<\/p>\n

FOLLOW LIVE: 2026 Australian Open, day 13<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Twist in US star’s wild stripped Olympic medal saga<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Aussies suffer shock pre-World Cup loss in ‘alien’ conditions<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Serena<\/p>\n

Serena Williams holds daughter Alexis Olympia in Auckland.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the International Tennis Integrity Agency let the cat out of the bag recently when revealing that the 23-time grand slam champion had registered with the sport’s drug testing body.<\/p>\n

The big question now is whether Williams will have another crack at singles grand slams, or focus on dominating doubles with older sister Venus.<\/p>\n

“What you should always know about Venus and Serena – and I’ve learnt this from the minute they came on the tour back in the late 90s – they are the most unpredictable sportspeople you will ever, ever come across. You never ever know,” leading Nine commentator Smith, a former Great Britain No.1, said in conversation with Chris Stubbs on Stan Sport’s Grand Slam Daily.<\/a><\/p>\n

“Obviously great for the sport, brings big conversations back in. There’ll be some masterplan somewhere because also what I also know is that Venus and Serena, if you interview them, they’re two steps ahead of you.<\/p>\n

“They’re always ahead of the press, always. They’re just so astute and smart in everything they do that I think this is going to be really fun. Can’t wait. I wouldn’t try and figure out what Serena’s going to try and do because you’ll get it wrong.<\/p>\n

“They know what they’re doing and we don’t.”<\/p>\n

\"Chris<\/p>\n

Chris Stubbs and Sam Smith on Grand Slam Daily.\u00a0Stan<\/p>\n

Williams was this week pushed for an answer on a comeback during an interview on US TV, despite in December rejecting claims that she was preparing for a return.<\/p>\n

Williams threw cold water on the idea that she might be preparing to return to tennis at the time, taking to social media to tell her followers that she is “NOT coming back.”<\/p>\n

Williams’ denial has not halted the speculation, with some of the sport’s leading voices questioning why any former athlete would choose to be put back in the testing pool if they weren’t seriously considering a comeback.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Serena Williams on US TV.\u00a0Today<\/p>\n

Speaking to Wide World of Sports last week, former men’s world No.1 Jim Courier explained how onerous it was for athletes<\/a>, who have to be in a pre-determined place at a pre-determined time every single day in case drug testers turn up.<\/p>\n

“So no person that doesn’t have intentions to play professional tennis is going to put themselves in that list, especially someone who has as much experience doing it as Serena Williams,” Courier said.<\/p>\n

“Serena denied she’s coming back, but I think unless she gets injured there is no doubt she’s going to play somewhere at some point.<\/p>\n

“Whether that’s the mixed doubles at the US Open, whether that’s doubles with her sister somewhere, whether it’s singles, only she knows. But there’s no other way to interpret that.”<\/p>\n

Which is why Williams perhaps shouldn’t have been taken by surprise when the question was raised in an interview with Savannah Guthrie on America’s Today show.<\/p>\n

“I mean really, are you asking this on the Today show?” Williams asked. “Oh my God.”<\/p>\n

\"Venus<\/p>\n

Venus Williams (left) and her sister Serena playing as a doubles pair at the 2022 US Open.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“They would kill me if I didn’t,” Guthrie replied.<\/p>\n

Williams: “Oh my goodness.”<\/p>\n

Guthrie: “Is that a no?”<\/p>\n

Williams: Now people on the set are laughing, this is distracting. You’re distracting us over there.”<\/p>\n

Guthrie: “OK, but you didn’t say yes or no.”<\/p>\n

Williams: “I’m just having fun and enjoying my life right now.”<\/p>\n

Guthrie: “That’s not a yes or a no.”<\/p>\n

Williams: “I don’t know, I’m just going to see what happens.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Smith could hardly be more definitive. “You don’t go back in the testing pool unless you’re coming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-446826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446826","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=446826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}