Serena Williams will play singles at Wimbledon after accepting a wild card invitation

<p>LONDON (AP) &#8212; <a href=”https://apnews.com/hub/serena-williams”>Serena Williams</a> will play singles at <a href=”https://apnews.com/article/wimbledon-prize-money-27668cb78a7a1cb584a09ac22c8178c6″>Wimbledon</a> after accepting a wild card invitation, the All England Club announced Sunday.</p><p>The move comes after the 44-year-old <a href=”https://apnews.com/article/serena-williams-comeback-tennis-b0696e1d76b0e7695d6e7d6fc4a78875″>Williams recently returned to competition</a> in doubles after nearly four years away from professional tennis.</p><p>And it means that Williams will play both singles and doubles at Wimbledon after already accepting <a href=”https://apnews.com/article/serena-venus-williams-wimbledon-wild-cards-69539d8d322bb4dea74f997d556a5a92″>a wild card for the doubles competition with older sister Venus.</a></p><p>&#8220;This is not a drill,&#8221; Wimbledon said on its social media accounts.</p><p><a href=”https://apnews.com/article/us-open-tennis-championships-serena-williams-sports-new-york-1100c3194f269248c3ec4cc224a7c88e”>Serena&#8217;s last singles match</a> was a loss to Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round of the 2022 U.S. Open. At the time, she said she didn&#8217;t want to use the word &#8220;retiring&#8221; and instead declared that she was &#8220;evolving&#8221; away from tennis.</p><p>Serena has won 23 Grand Slam titles in singles, including seven at Wimbledon. She&#8217;s also won 14 Grand Slams in doubles, all with Venus, and six of them at Wimbledon.</p><p>Wimbledon starts in eight days.</p><p><a href=”https://apnews.com/article/serena-williams-comeback-queens-doubles-mboko-4267d4ff546e0ab929418e6d1c7f83d1″>Serena won a doubles match with partner Victoria Mboko</a> at Queen&#8217;s Club last week but then the pair had to withdraw after Mboko injured her knee in a singles match.</p><p>In another doubles match at the Berlin Open on Tuesday, <a href=”https://apnews.com/article/serena-williams-comeback-berlin-open-wimbledon-e1a365ee2917a1511ae6e476a5af7e32″>Serena and partner Karolina Muchova were beaten</a> by Giuliana Olmos and Erin Routliffe.</p><p>___</p><p>AP tennis: <a href=”https://apnews.com/hub/tennis”>https://apnews.com/hub/tennis</a></p>

Read more Serena Williams will play singles at Wimbledon in her tennis comeback at age 44