{"id":258346,"date":"2026-06-07T18:03:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T18:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/258346\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T18:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T18:03:07","slug":"serena-williams-not-ruling-out-a-singles-return-ahead-of-her-doubles-comeback-at-queens-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/258346\/","title":{"rendered":"Serena Williams not ruling out a singles return ahead of her doubles comeback at Queen\u2019s Club"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON \u2013 Tennis great Serena Williams<\/a> is not ruling out a return to singles competition but suggested Sunday it’s not imminent ahead of her doubles comeback<\/a> in the sport she dominated for two decades.<\/p>\n

First up for the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion is the doubles tournament at Queen\u2019s Club, marking her first competitive tennis since the 2022 US Open.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say no right now, I feel like I probably need to train a little bit more if I want to play singles, and we will see if I get there, and if not\u2026 that\u2019s not my journey right now,\u201d Williams said in an eagerly anticipated press conference on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Williams will play alongside 19-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko<\/a>, who is 25 years her junior. Their first match is scheduled for Tuesday against third seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe.<\/p>\n

The 44-year-old Williams has not competed since bidding farewell at the 2022 U.S. Open<\/a>. At the time, she said she didn\u2019t want to use the word \u201cretiring\u201d and instead declared that she was \u201cevolving\u201d away from tennis.<\/p>\n

Williams, who shares her two daughters with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, revealed that as recently as December she believed she \u201cdefinitely was not\u201d returning to tennis, but, after some conversations, thought: \u201cWell, why not? For lack of a better explanation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s summer, the kids aren\u2019t in school, so it\u2019s a perfect time to get out there, have fun, and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams won seven Wimbledon singles titles and six at the U.S. Open before stepping away from the game. She won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles, including six at Wimbledon and two at the U.S. Open \u2014 all with her older sister Venus Williams.<\/p>\n

She says she is liberating herself of any expectations ahead of her comeback.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t need to win,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI\u2019ve won more than most people have in their whole lives, so it\u2019s not that important to me, and it\u2019s important that I keep reminding myself of that, because I don\u2019t have anything to prove.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have anything to lose, and everything here is just to gain \u2026 This whole journey is like, I\u2019m putting no pressure on myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Mboko, Williams saw something, she said, \u201cthat reminded me a lot of myself\u201d in her attitude, resilience and drive. After making the \u201cpretty 11th-hour commitment\u201d to Queen\u2019s, she reached out to the Canadian via text message.<\/p>\n

Mboko said: \u201cShe\u2019s hitting great. She has such clean ball striking, she could probably take years off, and when she steps on the court she could probably find that rhythm again and find her timing. So I think that\u2019s really a God-given gift that she has.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally think she\u2019s ready to go. I\u2019m hitting with her, she\u2019s hitting pretty big and she\u2019s really fit, so we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2013 Tennis great Serena Williams is not ruling out a return to singles competition but suggested Sunday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[43883,100660,9,24,100659,63,122,124,123,82657,96489,319,86102,79755],"class_list":["post-258346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-alexis-ohanian","tag-erin-routliffe","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nicole-melichar-martinez","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-serena-williams","tag-serena-williams-comeback","tag-sports","tag-venus-williams","tag-victoria-mboko"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}