{"id":469611,"date":"2026-02-10T01:59:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T01:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/469611\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T01:59:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T01:59:14","slug":"tennis-news-2026-serena-williams-comeback-gains-steam-after-drug-testing-pool-date-set-for-possible-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/469611\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis news 2026, Serena Williams comeback gains steam after drug testing pool, date set for possible return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Serena Williams<\/a> passed another stage on the path to a possible comeback to professional tennis<\/a>, being listed Monday by the sport’s drug-testing organisation as eligible to return to competition on February 22.<\/p>\n

That is six months after the 23-time grand slam singles champion initially registered with the International Tennis Integrity Agency.<\/p>\n

Williams, who is 44, was listed on the ITIA website’s reinstatement page Monday.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Jake Paul’s fianc\u00e9e wins emotional Winter Olympics gold<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: How Broncos handled ‘elephant in the room’ at season launch<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Aussie champ’s classic interview after Super Bowl ‘perfection’<\/a><\/p>\n

What was not immediately known was when or where \u2014 or, truly, whether \u2014 Williams actually will play again.<\/p>\n

When it was revealed last year that Williams had signed up with ITIA to return to the drug-testing pool, she wrote on social media: \u201cOmg ya’ll I\u2019m NOT coming back. This wildfire is crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow American former world No.1 Jim Courier told Wide World of Sports during the Australian Open he was certain Williams was planning to play professional tennis again<\/a> in some capacity.<\/p>\n

\"Serena<\/p>\n

Serena Williams during her Women’s Singles Quarterfinals match against Simona Halep of Romania during day nine of the 2021 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on February 16, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Her agent did not immediately return a request for comment Monday. Neither did a spokesperson for the WTA Tour.<\/p>\n

Last year, when word emerged that Williams had made an initial move required for a return, US Tennis Association spokesman Brendan McIntyre said: \u201cIf Serena decides to return and compete at the professional level, together with her fans, we will enthusiastically welcome the return of one of the greatest champions in the history of our sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams, one of the greats of the game, has not competed since bidding farewell at the 2022 US Open. At the time, Williams said she didn\u2019t want to use the word \u201cretiring\u201d and instead declared that she was \u201cevolving\u201d away from tennis.<\/p>\n

Athletes returning to testing need to provide information on their whereabouts \u2014 details on their location when they are not at an official event and times when they are available to give samples. Someone who retires while they are on the list and later comes back needs to be available for testing for six months before they are allowed to return to competition.<\/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

Williams\u2019 older sister, Venus, returned to competition last July at age 45 after nearly one and a half years away from the tour; she never had announced her retirement. At the US Open, Venus became the oldest player to play singles at the American grand slam tournament since 1981.<\/p>\n

When Venus, a seven-time major singles champion, came back at the DC Open, she spoke about wishing Serena would join her back on tour. They claimed 14 grand slam doubles titles as a pair.<\/p>\n

\u201cI keep saying to my team: The only thing that would make this better is if she was here. Like, we always did everything together, so of course I miss her,\u201d Venus said at the time when asked about a video on social media that showed Serena swinging a racquet. \u201cBut if she comes back, I\u2019m sure she\u2019ll let y\u2019all know.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Serena Williams passed another stage on the path to a possible comeback to professional tennis, being listed Monday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-469611","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\/469611","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=469611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}