BY THE TIME the clay-court season had started, almost everyone in tennis had heard the growing rumblings.
It had begun months earlier, but as the winter turned to spring and the tour made its way to Europe, the speculation gradually turned from a tantalizing-but-unlikely idea to what seemed like a foregone conclusion. On June 1, it became official.
Serena Williams -- the 23-time major champion and arguably the greatest woman to ever play the sport -- was coming back.
Now, after playing doubles matches at the HSBC Championships and Berlin Open, Williams will compete in her first singles match in nearly four years Tuesday at Wimbledon, taking on No. 53-ranked Maya Joint. Williams, who will also play doubles alongside her sister Venus, has indicated she will be playing competitively throughout the summer.
Though Williams, now a mother of two, returned to the court just over a week after making her announcement and is competing at a major just weeks later, her comeback is anything but rushed. Behind the scenes, Williams and her team have been working tirelessly for months to prepare for this moment.
Her dominant serve and powerful hitting remain, as does her unparalleled aura, but things are different this time around. Though she already has one of the most accomplished résumés in tennis history, her team, which includes coaches Jarmere Jenkins and Rennae Stubbs, has shifted its priorities to adapt to the latest iteration of Serena Williams.
"She loves this sport, loves to compete and as long as she is happy doing this -- and she is -- her team will be here with her and for her," Stubbs told ESPN. "The most important thing I and any of her team have said is, 'As long as she is enjoying it, that's all we care about.' That is the focus for her too. She doesn't have to prove anything.
"I would say the only difference in this comeback is how much she is enjoying all of the process," she added, "because none of this is easy at 44 and with all her other responsibilities, especially being there for her kids. She is a very present mom, and it is amazing to watch her do it all. She is a great example that women truly can do everything."
THE SPECULATION STARTED on Dec. 2 of last year after it was discovered that Williams had quietly reentered the International Tennis Integrity Agency's registered testing pool.
The news spread quickly, but Williams shut the rumors down immediately.
"Omg yall I'm NOT coming back," Williams posted on X just hours after the first report. "This wildfire is crazy."
Her denial did little to stop the interest. Many openly wondered why someone would subject themselves to the rigid protocol -- which involves providing whereabouts for an hour of every day of the year and undergoing random drug tests -- if they had no intention of playing again. (Williams insisted at a news conference this month that she had no plans to come back in December. "I definitely was not," she said.)
Williams only fueled the buzz with an appearance on "Today" on Jan. 28. Promoting her partnership with Ro, a telehealth company, and her use of GLP-1 medications, Williams was asked by host Savannah Guthrie if she was returning to professional tennis. What followed was an awkward exchange that lasted over 90 seconds while Guthrie pressed for an answer and Williams remained coy.
The two smiled and laughed throughout, with Williams finally ending the conversation by saying, "I can't discuss this."
Three weeks later, on Feb. 19, she posted a video of herself serving to her TikTok account. "I have not done this since September 2023," she wrote. Three days later, she had officially been reinstated after clearing the six-month ITIA return protocol and was eligible to play tour-level events again.
It was also in February that Williams called Stubbs to see "what she was up to." The two had maintained a friendship since Stubbs had coached her during her farewell run in 2022, and Williams told reporters Stubbs had always been "there to motivate me in case I did want to try it again." Williams wanted to know if Stubbs would come down to Florida and work with her on the practice court.
Stubbs didn't hesitate.
"I mean, when Serena calls you to be a part of her team again, I was more than happy to help and be there as a coach and friend," Stubbs told ESPN.
Stubbs, a former world No. 1 in doubles and a six-time major doubles champion, made multiple trips, for a week at a time, in March and April. Stubbs said she was immediately impressed by Williams' work ethic, ball striking and "willingness to put herself out there and compete again."
And, "What people don't realize about Serena is, she is fun to be around," Stubbs added.
Williams was also joined in the spring -- sometimes as regularly as three times a week -- by WTA player Alycia Parks, currently ranked No. 80. Parks initially reached out to Williams in February while she was playing the Middle Eastern swing to see if Williams would want to train together when Parks returned to Florida. Williams agreed. Parks posted a video of the two hitting together March 2.
Despite their frequent practices, Parks was mum when asked what she knew about Williams' return during an appearance on Tennis Channel later that month.
"I don't know if she's coming back, I don't know when she's coming back," Parks said. "We just go to practice. We don't really talk too much about her coming back. It's just like fun stuff."
But she added Williams was "definitely fit" and that "she looks great and she's hitting the ball amazing."
Even while Williams was evasive about her potential tennis return, she was frequently seen on television in commercials and interviews related to her partnership with Ro, in which her husband, Alexis Ohanian, is an investor. Having first started appearing in such advertisements in August 2025 and after doing countless interviews on the topic, Williams has revealed she has lost 32 pounds since starting the medication Zepbound.
She told Women's Health that she had struggled to get her weight back to what she considered a healthy number following the birth of her first daughter, Olympia, in 2017 -- even after returning to full-time competition -- and dealt with more issues, including joint pain, after giving birth to daughter Adira in 2023.
But she said that the medication helped and that losing weight relieved her pain. She also has said it has improved her cholesterol and sugar levels.
Dr. Sarah Shultz, a biomechanist and the dean of the School of Health Sciences at the University of New Haven, does not know Williams personally but told ESPN that GLP-1 drugs could have substantial benefits for patients.
"When you have both weight loss and a change in inflammation, which is what the hormone's going to do for you, then you're going to lose that joint pain," Shultz said. "For every pound of weight that's lost, it's something like five Newtons of force so it makes a big difference.
"And when you think about it in terms of blood sugar, if her blood sugar is being regulated in a way that it wasn't previously, which is what the drug is supposed to do, now fatigue isn't as big of a deal either, and recovery is easier."
IN EARLY MAY, formal talks began between the HSBC Championships tournament and Williams' team about her potentially playing in the event. While the Queen's Club leadership was enthusiastically on board, Williams wanted to wait to officially commit to make sure she continued to progress on the practice court.
"We were very hopeful," Laura Robson, the tournament director, told ESPN. "As soon as we got that conversation started, there was just a lot of excitement. But [her team] was very good at letting us know throughout the last few weeks where she was at, and how likely it was going to be, so that we could make sure that we were prepared for when she did come onsite and have everything she needed."
Williams then decided she was ready. And Queen's Club, whose grass-court tournament in London is in only its second year on the WTA calendar, would be the site of her comeback.
Robson and the other tournament officials knew for several weeks that Williams would accept the doubles wild card -- there had been no discussions about receiving one for singles -- and even had her flight and other logistical information, but they wanted to allow Williams to make the announcement on her own terms.
Because there had previously been reports about Williams' participation in the week before the official announcement, Robson said she had been asked "every day" while commentating at Roland Garros for TNT. "We were waiting on her so I just kept saying, 'I have nothing to say,'" Robson said.
Though the weeklong tournament at Queen's Club was already about 90% sold out, according to Robson, the event saw a rush on the remaining tickets and got an immediate and substantial increase in media accreditation requests. Even knowing that, Robson was stunned by what she experienced on the first day the site was open to the media ahead of the tournament.
"It was even a shock to me how many eyeballs we had on the tournament for that period that she was on site," Robson said. "I obviously know what a big name she is and know the sort of attention that she has previously received, but to see all these camera crews turning up -- from CNN and all of the breakfast news shows and nontraditional sports broadcasters -- on the first day of practice when we weren't really even open yet, it just goes to show she's totally transcended the sport and just the story of it was so exciting and so attention-grabbing as well."
Robson said that Williams was in a great mood throughout the week and that she had a number of friends and family members with her, including her daughters. Ohanian arrived in time for Williams' first match after attending Game 3 of the NBA Finals in New York the night before. According to her conversations with them, Robson said Williams and her family were most excited to check out some of the kid-friendly tourist sites, including the Lego store, in town.
On June 9, the day of Williams' first -- and ultimately only -- match at the venue, she and her 19-year-old partner, Victoria Mboko, who Williams says reminds her of herself, were scheduled to play in the final match on Andy Murray Arena, the tournament's Centre Court. Facing doubles specialists Erin Routliffe and Nicole Melichar-Martinez, on what would be the sunniest day of the week, the stands were packed to capacity from before the match began.
Robson brought Lindsey Vonn, the legendary Olympic skier, to a balcony attached to the clubhouse overlooking the court, typically a quiet, little-used space for players, coaches and other credentialed guests, to watch.
"When I took Lindsey out, I was like, 'Oh yeah, it should be pretty chill. It's never that busy up here,'" Robson said. "And then next thing I knew, it was like half of the draw came out to have a look. I have never seen it so busy. There were at least 40 or 50 players and coaches out there. Everyone was so excited to see Serena."
Williams and Mboko won the match 7-6 (2), 6-2, much to the delight of the partisan crowd. Williams impressed at times with flashes of her signature power and hitting -- although she wasn't exactly impressed by her own performance.
"My God, I think I would give myself -- what do you think, a C-minus?" she asked reporters after the match.
Both Williams and Mboko seemed excited to have the chance to keep playing together, and for Williams to get more match experience, but their run ended the following day when Mboko sustained a medial collateral ligament injury in her left knee in her singles match. She is sidelined through the grass season. In a post on social media later that week, Mboko thanked Williams "for giving me this incredible opportunity to play alongside you." She apologized for their premature finish but added, "I hope we can play together again soon and finish what we started."
Williams then went to Germany to play doubles at the Berlin Open alongside Karolina Muchova. They lost in their opening match to Routliffe and Giuliana Olmos 6-4, 6-4.
ON JUNE 16, Wimbledon announced the wild cards for the 2026 tournament. Williams and Venus -- who combine for 21 titles at the All England Club, including six in women's doubles -- were given a spot in the doubles draw.
Conspicuously, the tournament named only seven of the eight players receiving an invitation to the women's singles draw. In the last spot, it simply read, "To be announced."
When speaking to the media at Queen's Club, Williams said she was unsure if she would return to singles.
"I can't say no right now," she said. "I feel like I probably need to train a little bit more if I want to play singles, and we will see if I get there, and if not ... that's not my journey right now."
She was equally, and even comically, vague during her news conference in Berlin. "Oh my gosh, there are some left?" she said when asked about the unclaimed wild card. She then asked Muchova what she thought about it. "I think I would be interested in it," Muchova said playfully.
On June 21, it was announced that Williams would receive the remaining wild-card spot.
Having last played a singles match on Sept. 2, 2022 -- a loss in a three-set thriller to Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round at the US Open -- before "evolving away" from tennis, and with just two recent doubles matches under her belt, it's unclear what to expect from Williams in the match against Joint.
In a media conference call Monday, Mary Joe Fernandez, the former world No. 4 and current ESPN analyst, said she was initially surprised by Williams' decision to return during the grass-court portion of the season.
"At first I kind of questioned why Serena would come back on the grass because I think it's a tough surface right away to do well on," Fernandez said. "I guess it's where she feels at home. She's won it seven times. [But] the last two times she played [in 2021 and 2022], she lost in the opening round."
Even other Grand Slam champions are surprised by her choice to play singles with such little preparation.
"Coming back at Wimbledon, not having played a singles match in years, like a lot of years, and saying, 'You know what? I think my first dipping my toes back in is going to be at Wimbledon.' [If it were me] I would've scheduled seven events," said Andy Roddick, the 2003 US Open champion and former world No. 1, on his "Served" podcast. "I would've started at a futures [event] in Branson, Missouri, next to a Chili's at a public park, hoping no one saw me.
"Imagine being in Serena's brain where it's like, 'Oh no, it's going to be Wimbledon. I'm good enough. I can handle this. No problem.' That's levels of confidence that I didn't have for 12 seconds of my existence in my entire life."
But, according to Stubbs, who has been spotted throughout Williams' practice sessions this week at the All England Club, it largely comes down to one thing: Williams is happy to be back out there and with her two biggest fans watching.
"She is loving being on the road, especially with her daughters by her side," Stubbs said. "For them to be with her throughout this journey and see their mom compete has been amazing."
And as Williams told the media at Queen's Club earlier this month, "Why not?"
To her, she explained, the results are secondary. She has already experienced the pressure that comes with the sport -- and famously chasing Margaret Court's long-standing major record -- and isn't singularly focused on that aspect of it now.
"I don't need to win," Williams said. "I've won more than most people have in their whole lives, so it's not that important to me, and it's important that I keep reminding myself of that, because I don't have anything to prove.
"I don't have anything to lose, and everything here is just to gain."
