Williams, 44, to return to action in Queen's doubles

Serena Williams, one of the greatest tennis players of all time, will make her return to competitive action after an absence of almost four years in the women's doubles at Queen's Club later this month.

She has been granted a wildcard for the tournament which begins on 8 June and, although her partner has not yet been officially confirmed, it has been widely reported that she will play alongside Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko.

The 44-year-old American "evolved away" from tennis in 2022 after winning 23 Grand Slam singles titles in her 27-year career.

Rumours of a return began last year when her name appeared on the list of players registered for the drug-testing pool.

Williams denied she was returning, but the whispers got louder when her name was included on the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) reinstatements list in February.

On Monday, she shared a video on social media of her walking on to a tennis court containing the caption: "Guess everybody heard the news", alongside a post which said: "Good news travels fast."

Williams said: "Queen's Club feels like the perfect place to begin this next chapter.

"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 will take the court in London at the WTA 500 event 196 weeks after her final appearance at the 2022 US Open.

Mboko, 19, is one of the most exciting prospects in the women's game and is ranked ninth in the world in singles.

Speaking after her second-round match at the French Open last week, Mboko described Williams as her "idol".

Mboko lost in the third round at Roland Garros on Saturday to former Australian Open champion Madison Keys.

Wimbledon, where Williams has won seven singles and seven doubles titles, begins three weeks after Queen's.

She would need a wildcard to compete but the prospect of Williams playing on the SW19 grass once again is a tantalising one for organisers.

Williams' 23 Grand Slam singles titles are the most by a woman in the Open era and second-highest of all-time in the women's game, behind Margaret Court's tally of 24.

She spent 319 weeks at the top of the world rankings and won 73 singles titles on the WTA Tour.

She also won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles with sister Venus Williams, with the pair going undefeated in major finals together, and won three Olympic doubles gold medals to go with her individual gold from London 2012.

She completed a career 'Golden Slam' in singles and doubles - winning all four Grand Slams and Olympic gold - and won every singles major at least three times.

Williams reached four major finals after returning from maternity leave with her first daughter in 2018 and also returned to the world's top 10.

On the subject of whether she might be returning with a view to playing in the singles at Wimbledon, three-time champion John McEnroe told TNT Sports: "That would seem to be the logical next step.

"If Serena Williams is the greatest of all time and is coming back, she's not coming back as she's happy to play - she wants to win another major - that's the only reason I can think that she would want to play tennis again."

The highest-earning female athlete of all-time, Williams drew huge crowds throughout her career and is a figure who has truly transcended her sport.

Equipped with arguably the best serve ever seen in the women's game, Williams was known for her big groundstrokes, strong return of serve and superb movement.

After retiring, Williams largely kept away from the sport and gave birth to her second daughter in 2023.

Last year, she told the Today Show in the US about losing 31lb (14kg) over the previous eight months.

She said she had to look at her extra weight as "an opponent". Despite "training five hours a day" and "running, walking, biking, stair climbing", she told the show she had no other choice but to "try something different".

Williams would not say which weight loss drug she was taking, although she had just become a spokesperson for Ro, a company which sells GLP-1 brands like Wegovy and Zepbound (known as Mounjaro in the UK) through its weight-loss programme. Her husband, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, is also an investor.

Williams said she was seeing the benefit of her hard work at the gym, was training for a half-marathon and "running farther than I ever had".

The motivation for Serena Williams' return is not yet clear.

Is she playing so in future she can share a doubles court one last time with her sister Venus - who turns 46 on 17 June?

Or is that competitive flame far from extinguished, and does she believe - like the odd former player I have shared a commentary box with - that she still has the beating of many of the new generation?

Wimbledon starts at the end of the month, and assuming Serena plays, there is not yet any clear intelligence to suggest it would definitely be as a singles player.

But the US Open does not begin for another two months after that and, by late August, Williams may find a singles return too hard to resist.