Serena Williams gets wild-card entry for Wimbledon singles
Serena Williams is going to play at Wimbledon, after all. The All England Club announced on 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 first-round 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.
US OPEN LETS RUSSIAN TENNIS PLAYERS IN AFTER WIMBLEDON BAN » The U.S. Open will allow tennis players from Russia and Belarus to compete this year despite the ongoing war in Ukraine, which prompted Wimbledon to ban those athletes.
U.S. Tennis Association CEO and Executive Director Lew Sherr, whose group runs the U.S. Open, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that the USTA Board decided to let Russians and Belarusians enter the tournament because of “concern about holding the individual athletes accountable for the actions and decisions of their governments.”
Sherr said athletes from Russia and Belarus will play at Flushing Meadows under a neutral flag — an arrangement that’s been used at various tennis tournaments around the world, including the French Open, which ended June 5.