Serena Williams has suggested that she will compete at Wimbledon this year, which would mark her return to competition after a one-year layoff.
In an Instagram post on Tuesday, she included a picture of her trainers and ankle braces on grass with her tennis bag in the background. Williams captioned the photo: “SW and SW19. It’s a date. 2022, see you there.” She additionally tagged the Eastbourne international in the photo, the pre-Wimbledon WTA event that begins next week, along with her trainer, hitting partner and Eric Hechtman, the coach of her sister, Venus. Wimbledon begins on June 27th.
Williams has not competed since last year’s Wimbledon first-round match against Aliaksandra Sasnovich, when she slipped on the wet grass and was forced to retire early in the first set. In the meantime, her ranking has fallen to 1,208 and, because she did not apply for a protected ranking before Wimbledon, she would require a wildcard to enter the event.
With 23 grand slam singles titles, Williams currently holds the Open era grand slam record. At Wimbledon, she has won seven singles titles, six women’s doubles titles alongside her sister, Venus, and also the mixed doubles title in 1998. After winning her 23rd grand slam title while pregnant with her daughter, Olympia, in Australia in 2017, Williams returned from maternity leave in 2018.
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While she has reached four grand slam finals since then, including at Wimbledon in 2018 and 2019, Williams was unable to win a set in any of those finals. Williams turns 41 on September 26th. - Guardian
