SERENA WILL PLAY AT WIMBLEDON
Serena Williams is going to play at Wimbledon, after all. The All England Club announced on Tuesday that Williams was awarded a wildcard 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.
Two other women will get invitations “in due course,” the All England Club said.
Seven of the eight men’s wild-card berths were also announced, including one for three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka.
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 mid-match retirement at any Grand Slam tournament of her career and first since 1998.
With the lack of activity since then, Williams — who first reached No. 1 in July 2002 — is 1,208th in the WTA rankings this week. That is why she was not automatically placed in the Wimbledon field.
No Russian ban
The U.S. Open will allow tennis players from Russia and Belarus to compete this year despite the ongoing invasion of 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 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.
Notable
Casper Ruud endured a tough transition from clay to the grass courts as the top seed lost his opening-round match at the Queen’s Club in straight sets to an opponent ranked No. 180. Nine days after losing to Rafael Nadal in the French Open final, Ruud was beaten 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2) by little-known Ryan Peniston.