London (AFP) – Serena Williams said Tuesday a comment from her daughter inspired her decision to return to play doubles at Wimbledon alongside sister Venus later in June. Speaking in Berlin after she was defeated alongside doubles partner Karolina Muchova in the first round, Williams confirmed she would accept a wildcard to play at Wimbledon for the first time since 2022, alongside long-time doubles partner Venus.
The 44-year-old, who has won 14 doubles Grand Slams alongside Venus including six on the Wimbledon grass, said a conversation with eight-year-old daughter Olympia sparked her decision. “My daughter Olympia told me I should play with Venus. She’s always right, so I was like ‘damn’. ‘Mom, maybe you should play with Venus.’ But she’s very serious; she knows. She’s very smart — she’s very wise, I think is another word. So I said ‘You know, let’s see if we can do it’.”
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Williams previously said a desire to play in front of her young daughters was a motivating factor in her shock return. Williams, however, shot down speculation she may take the last remaining singles wildcard slot. “You think I’m ready for singles?” Williams asked reporters. “I need to get to work.” The Williams sisters’ last Wimbledon title came on their most recent appearance together a decade ago.
A 23-time Grand Slam singles winner, Williams retired in 2022 but re-entered doping protocols in 2025 to keep open the idea of a potential return. She said Tuesday that her sister’s run to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the 2025 US Open inspired her to consider coming back. “I think I was really motivated by what Venus was doing that year in the Open doubles. I thought she played really well. And I would say at the time, (people) were always telling me that I should play but I felt a lot of pressure because I wasn’t practising at all. It wasn’t my goal at the time,” Williams said of a proper comeback, adding, “I had no intention of actually being here today, to be perfectly honest with you.”
– Comeback continues –
Williams made a sensational return last week when she won her first-round doubles match at Queen’s Club with partner Victoria Mboko, her first competitive appearance in 1,375 days. She was unable to play more than one match after Mboko pulled out with an injury, but impressed in what was her first competitive match in almost four years. After so long away, Williams had no ranking to secure automatic entry into tournaments, leaving her to rely on wildcards.
Her decision to pick up a racquet in a competitive setting for the first time since losing to Ajla Tomljanovic at the 2022 US Open had sparked questions about the wisdom of the move. But it was like she had never been away as Williams produced her trademark thunderous serve and fearsome ground-strokes to the delight of a capacity crowd in London. In Berlin, Williams and Muchova lost in straight sets, but the American said she felt she had improved from her previous outing. “I felt pretty good out there. I felt actually more nimble and more sturdy and quicker than the first match in Queens,” Williams said after the match.
Serena Williams is a seven-time Wimbledon singles champion, but she hasn’t won a Grand Slam crown since beating Venus to win the 2017 Australian Open. Her most recent Wimbledon singles title came in 2016, with her last four Grand Slam finals ending in defeat. Five-time Wimbledon singles champion Venus has lost all seven of her singles matches this year. The 45-year-old, who plays only occasionally in the twilight of her career, won a doubles match with Katie Boulter in Madrid in April.
Elsewhere in the Wimbledon wildcard list, three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka, who will retire at the end of the season, and Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov were given entry into the men’s singles. Maja Chwalinska, who reached the French Open final earlier in June, was handed a wildcard for the women’s singles.
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