Sports

Serena Williams announces she will compete at Wimbledon this year

by Wynne Davis

Serena Williams, seen here during the Australian Open in February 2021, has said she will compete in Wimbledon this month. Williams has not competed professionally since sustaining an injury at last year's Wimbledon tennis tournament.
Serena Williams, seen here during the Australian Open in February 2021, has said she will compete in Wimbledon this month. Williams has not competed professionally since sustaining an injury at last year's Wimbledon tennis tournament. David Gray / AFP via Getty Images

Don't count Serena Williams out just yet. The 40-year-old is returning to Wimbledon this month as one of the wild-card picks for the women's singles portion of the tennis tournament.

The announcement came on Tuesday from the All England Club, and Williams followed up with a post on her Instagram account that said, "SW and SW19. It's a date. 2022 See you there." (SW19 is a reference to Wimbledon; the All England Club's postal code is SW19.)

The Grand Slam tournament begins on June 27, and it will mark the first time since last year's event that Williams will compete professionally. The seven-time Wimbledon champion exited the 2021 tournament during her first set in the first round after sustaining an injury to her right leg on the slippery grass court.

Since then, many fans have been left wondering if this was it for Williams and if a retirement announcement was coming, especially after she parted ways with her longtime coach Patrick Mouratoglou, who then started working with Romania's Simona Halep.

As Williams returns to the court, many fans are watching to see whether the player they consider the GOAT — the greatest of all time — can win her 24th Grand Slam singles title and tie the record that Australia's Margaret Court has held since the 1970s.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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