Editor’s note: This explainer has been updated June 21, 2026, to reflect news of Serena Williams playing singles at Wimbledon as a wild card.Serena Williams, considered by many the greatest women’s tennis player of all time, will return to the singles court at Wimbledon, as a wild card, after almost four years away.Williams, 44, will play her first Grand Slam main draw since the 2022 U.S. Open, the tournament confirmed Sunday June 21. She is also reuniting with her sister Venus for the Wimbledon women’s doubles.The sisters have won six Wimbledon doubles titles together, and 12 singles titles between them — Serena seven and Venus five.Serena returned to tennis June 9, with a women’s doubles match at Queen’s, the prestigious grass-court tournament played ahead of Wimbledon.Williams and Victoria Mboko, the rising 19-year-old Canadian, defeated No. 3 seeds Erin Routliffe of New Zealand and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the U.S. 7-6(2), 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals.But after Mboko injured her left knee, which will mean she misses Wimbledon, Williams switched partner for her next tournament, be the Berlin Open in Germany. That is also a grass-court event, and she partnered Karolína Muchová of the Czech Republic, ahead of reuniting with Venus at Wimbledon, which begins June 29.But which other tournaments could Williams play in? How long will her partnership with Venus, the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion with whom she won 14 major doubles titles and three Olympic golds, last? And what has she had to do to make a tennis return possible?Serena and Venus Williams are reuniting at WimbledonAva WallaceWill Serena Williams return to tennis in singles, as well as doubles?She will. Williams will play Wimbledon as a singles wild card. The tournament starts Monday June 29, and the draw for the singles is Friday June 26.How did Serena Williams’ latest match in her comeback go?At the Berlin Tennis Open, a WTA 500 event two rungs below a Grand Slam, Williams played with Muchová against Routliffe, who this time partnered with Mexico’s Giuliana Olmos. Routliffe, who played below her normal level in the meeting with Williams and Mboko at Queen’s, was vastly improved, and she and Olmos used patient, intelligent doubles to defeat Williams and Muchová 6-4, 6-4.Williams and Muchová had opportunities, with Routliffe and Olmos winning four out of four deciding points (played at deuce) on their own serve, but their strategic play was ultimately too consistent for Williams and Muchová to establish any real momentum.What happened in her first match back?Williams and Mboko were solid, and at times spectacular, during a 7-6(2), 6-2 win over Routliffe and Melichar-Martinez, who seemed a little over-awed by the situation in front of them.Williams and Mboko did not play their quarterfinal at Queen’s, after Mboko injured her left knee in a singles match and had to withdraw.Why is she making her tennis comeback now?“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,” Williams said in a statement announcing her appearance at Queen’s.Grass is the shortest season in tennis, running only from the start of June to the middle of July, but it is also the part of the calendar with which Williams became synonymous. She won Wimbledon, the third Grand Slam of the year, seven times in singles, and was a master of the slick, low-bouncing lawns of the All England Tennis Club.After she and Mboko defeated Routliffe and Melichar-Martinez, Williams said in a news conference that Wimbledon was giving her time to decide regarding accepting a doubles wild card, before her partnership with Venus was announced June 16.The return to tennis ended a gradual shift in Williams from a definitive “no,” to non-committal, to returning to the sport.When Williams’ name was seen in the tennis anti-doping pool last December, Williams posted on X: “Omg yall I’m NOT coming back. This wildfire is crazy.”But during an interview on “Today” in January, Williams was offered the chance to put the possibility of her return to bed. Instead, she laughed and responded: “If I want to put it to bed … Listen, I want to go to bed — it’s early.”On both occasions, representatives for Williams did not respond to a request for comment. Then, Feb. 19, Williams posted a cryptic TikTok in which she practiced serves alone on a tennis court for, she said, the first time since 2023.