Almost four years since her last appearance at a grand slam tournament, tennis champion Serena Williams is returning to compete in women’s singles, earning herself the final wild card spot at this year’s Wimbledon, beginning June 29.
On Sunday, the All England Club announced that the 44-year old legend was the eighth and final player to receive a wildcard in the ladies’ singles category.
Tournament organisers distribute wildcards as special invitations to career champions or high-profile players coming back from injury.
“This is not a drill,” the tournament’s official social media posts read, declaring the return of the seven-time Wimbledon singles champion — a staggering 28 years since her first Wimbledon appearance, and six years since her last.
Her upcoming appearance will mark her first Grand Slam singles competition since the US Open in 2022.
It comes weeks after the 23-time major singles champion announced she would be returning to competitive tennis. She has since been playing doubles at the Berlin Open and at the Queen’s Club Championship in London.
“I guess I’ve got nothing better to do, I’m tired of sitting at home, my kids are out of school this summer, so why not?” she said earlier this month.
This month, the world has also been celebrating the announcement that Williams and her sister Venus would be competing at Wimbledon in the doubles tournament. The pair, whose last appearance side by side was a decade ago, were announced as a doubles wild card on June 16.
The pair are the most successful players in women’s tennis history, having won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles — six of them at Wimbledon.