Serena Williams and Venus Williams are set to return to Wimbledon together after being handed a women’s doubles wildcard for this summer’s Championships.
The pair will compete at the All England Club when Wimbledon begins on Monday, 29 June, in what is one of the most high-profile wildcard decisions of this year’s tournament.
Neither sister is currently on the singles wildcard list, although one women’s singles place remains available.
That makes the doubles entry significant. It gives Wimbledon a major comeback storyline while keeping the focus on the format where the Williams sisters have the clearest recent and historical case.
Serena and Venus Williams return to familiar Wimbledon ground
The decision is rooted in their record at the tournament. Serena and Venus have won the Wimbledon women’s doubles title six times, making them one of the defining partnerships of the modern era.
Their return will inevitably bring attention beyond the doubles draw, but the sporting context is clear.
Serena made her comeback at Queen’s last week, four years after her appearance at the 2022 US Open, which many expected to be the final match of her career.
The 44-year-old remains one of Wimbledon’s most successful champions. She is a 23-time Grand Slam singles winner and a seven-time Wimbledon singles champion.
Venus is a five-time Wimbledon singles champion, while her doubles record alongside Serena gives the wildcard a strong historical foundation.
The decision also avoids overstating the current singles picture. For now, this is a doubles comeback, not a confirmed return to the Wimbledon singles draw.
Wimbledon wildcard list gives wider context to Williams decision
Venus’ current singles form explains why that distinction matters. She has lost all seven of her singles matches this season, which makes the doubles route the more measured option.
There is also some recent doubles evidence behind the selection. Venus won a doubles match alongside Katie Boulter at the Madrid Open in April.
Serena is following a similar route before Wimbledon. She is playing doubles in Berlin this week with Karolina Muchova before linking up again with Venus at the All England Club.
The wider wildcard announcement also shows the scale of the decisions made by the Wimbledon committee. Men’s singles wildcards include Grigor Dimitrov, Stan Wawrinka, Jacob Fearnley, Arthur Fery, Jack Pinnington Jones and Toby Samuel.
In the women’s singles draw, wildcards include Maja Chwalinska, Harriet Dart, Alicia Dudeney, Hannah Klugman, Mika Stojsavljevic, Katie Swan and Mimi Xu.
Wimbledon says wildcards are usually offered on the basis of past performance at Wimbledon or to increase British interest.
On that basis, the Williams doubles wildcard is straightforward to understand. Their Wimbledon record gives the decision substance, while the absence of a singles wildcard keeps the story grounded in current reality.
Their return will be one of the most watched moments of the tournament. It is also a carefully framed one. Wimbledon have brought Serena and Venus Williams back without turning a doubles comeback into something the present evidence does not yet support.
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