Sporting legend Serena Williams has confirmed her return to professional tennis, ending an almost four-year absence from the sport.<\/p>\n
The 23-time Grand Slam winner has ended months of speculation over a rumoured comeback with a cheeky social media video captioned “good news travels fast”.<\/p>\n
In the short clip, shared on Instagram, Williams could be seen walking over to answer her phone which was buzzing with phone calls and messages.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Guess everybody heard the news,” another caption said as the video ended.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Williams received a wildcard entry into the doubles draw at this month’s Queen’s Club Championships, where she is expected to play with 19-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko.<\/p>\n
“Queen’s Club feels like the perfect place to begin this next chapter,” Williams said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“Grass has given me some of the most meaningful moments of my career, and I’m excited to be back competing on one of the sport’s most iconic stages.”<\/p>\n
The sporting legend had announced she was “evolving away from tennis” when she last played at the 2022 US Open, where she received a hero’s send-off in a multi-day celebration of her glittering career.<\/p>\n
Williams came up short in her bid to capture a 24th major after having her first child, Olympia, in 2017.<\/p>\n
She gave birth to her second child in 2023, making it appear increasingly unlikely that she would return to competitive tennis.<\/p>\n
Speculation surrounding her return had been building for months after she re-entered the sport\u2019s anti-doping testing pool.<\/p>\n
World Tennis Association chair Valerie Camillo said the tour was thrilled to see Williams return, calling her comeback a significant moment for the sport.<\/p>\n
“Serena is one of the greatest athletes of all time, with a legacy that extends far beyond the court… I cannot wait to see her face a new generation of top players,” Ms Camillo said.<\/p>\n
“We are thrilled to welcome her back to the WTA Tour at this hugely exciting moment for women\u2019s tennis.”<\/p>\n
The news sparked an immediate reaction online, with tennis fans flooding social media to celebrate Williams’ return.<\/p>\n
“It’s official, the Queen is back!” one wrote.<\/p>\n
“Dreams come true,” another said.<\/p>\n
“The GOAT has entered the chat,” a third added.<\/p>\n
“I knew it! So glad to have you back, Serena. The sport needs you!” a fourth said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sporting legend Serena Williams has confirmed her return to professional tennis, ending an almost four-year absence from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,55138,6413,85,747],"class_list":["post-709279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-comeback","tag-serena-williams","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709279","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=709279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}