Serena Williams comeback at 44 years old confirmed at Queen's Club

Serena Williams has officially confirmed plans for a comeback; at 44 years old, the 23-time Grand Slam champion and mother of two has received a wild card to compete in her first tournament in over three years at Queen's Club in doubles. According to the WTA, her partner will be announced "in due course."

Williams, who first turned pro back in 1995 at 14 years of age, holds the women’s Open Era record for Grand Slam tournament victories, surpassing Stefanie Graf at the 2017 Australian Open. The former world No. 1 spent a whopping 319 weeks atop the WTA rankings, the third-largest total behind Graf and Martina Navratilova. Rather than retire, Williams announced an “evolution” away from the sport back in 2022, playing her final match in the third round of that year’s US Open.

By then, Williams had already welcomed her first child—daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. in 2017—and has since given birth to a second daughter Adira River in 2023. In her time away from the sport, Williams has pursued numerous business endeavors and became a spokesperson Ro, a telehealth company that markets GLP-1 weight-loss medications. Williams, who says she lost 34 pounds on Zepbound, starred in a commercial for Ro during Super Bowl LX earlier this year.

Read more: Serena Williams is returning to tennis—and bringing the GLP-1 debate with her

All the while, elder sister Venus has continued to play professional tournaments in her 40s. She became the oldest woman to win a professional tennis match in over 20 years at the Mubadala Citi DC Open last summer and reached the quarterfinals of the US Open in women’s doubles alongside Leylah Fernandez.

Serena paid tribute to Venus in an emotional social media post after Venus pushed Karolina Muchova to three sets at the US Open in singles.

“Strength, courage, determination, class, perseverance, inspiration… there’s not enough words to describe how proud I am of you @VenusWilliams,” Serena captioned.  “P.S. I hope to be like you.”

It was around that time that Williams first sparked her own rumors of a comeback. In December, it was revealed that she had re-entered the International Tennis Integrity Association’s anti-doping testing pool.

Re-entry to the pool requires a six-month cooling period before officially regaining eligibility, and Williams was first cleared to compete on February 22, 2026. She shared images and video of herself practicing and serving on social media in the lead-up to this latest confirmation, but had been otherwise reticent to confirm plans to make an official return to tennis.