Serena set to make return at Wimbledon

Serena Williams is going to play at Wimbledon, after all. The All England Club announced Tuesday that Williams was awarded a wild-card entry for singles, marking her return to Grand Slam action after a year away.

The owner of a professional era-record 23 Grand Slam singles trophies, and as big a star as tennis ever has seen, is going to tune up by playing doubles at a smaller grass-court event first, teaming with Ons Jabeur at Eastbourne, England, next week.

Main-draw play at Wimbledon begins on June 27.

Williams has not competed anywhere since getting injured during the first set of her firstround match at the All England Club in 2021. And her name did not appear on the women’s singles entry list released by the grass-court Grand Slam tournament earlier this month.

But Williams was among a half-dozen women given a spot in the singles draw on Tuesday, along with five British players: Katie Boulter, Jodie Burrage, Sonay Kartal, Yuriko Miyazaki and Katie Swan.

Earlier in the day, Williams posted a photo of her white shoes on what appears to be a grass court and the message: “SW and SW19. It’s a date. 2022. See you there. Let’s Go.”

“SW” are her initials, of course, and “SW19” is the postal code for Wimbledon.

The 40-year-old American has won seven of her singles trophies at Wimbledon, the first in 2002 and most recently in 2016. Williams was the runner-up there in 2018 and 2019 (the tournament was canceled in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic).

In 2021, Williams lost her footing on the slick grass and then her right leg buckled, leading to just the second midmatch retirement at any Grand Slam tournament of her career and first since 1998.