Serena Williams is returning to Hologic WTA Tour action in a big way this grass-court season.
The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) announced on Tuesday that Williams will pair with Ons Jabeur in doubles at the Rothesay International in Eastbourne, a WTA 500 grass-court event. Eastbourne main-draw play begins on Sunday, June 19.
Wimbledon also announced on Tuesday that Williams has received a wild card for the singles main draw of the grass-court Grand Slam event. Williams is a seven-time Wimbledon singles champion. The Wimbledon main draw starts on Monday, June 27.
Williams, who has an Open Era record of 23 Grand Slam singles titles and has also won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles, will be making her first appearance on tour in nearly a year at Eastbourne.
Eastbourne will also mark Williams’s first doubles event on tour since she made the 2020 Auckland final paired with good friend Caroline Wozniacki.
She's back. And back at Eastbourne. đź‘€
— LTA (@the_LTA) June 14, 2022
Read more about @serenawilliams returning to the #RothesayInternational 👇
In her last match on tour, a "heartbroken" Williams was forced to retire with a leg injury in her 2021 Wimbledon first-round singles match against Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
But now, Eastbourne will resume Williams’s sparkling professional career of over 25 years. Williams has won 73 WTA singles titles and 23 WTA doubles titles, and she has spent 319 weeks as World No.1 in singles and eight weeks as World No.1 in doubles.
"Still over the moon with the news," her upcoming partner Jabeur said after her first-round win in Berlin. "Hopefully we're going to make a great team. I cannot wait to play with her, such a legend. I've always loved Serena, the way she plays, the way she is on court and outside the court."
The stage awaits.
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) June 14, 2022
Our 7-time champion @serenawilliams will return to Wimbledon as a wild card this summer for her 21st appearance pic.twitter.com/7ddMAv7mOq
Williams has particularly excelled at Wimbledon since her tournament debut in 1998, where she immediately won the mixed doubles title alongside Max Mirnyi.
The long-time former World No.1's most recent Wimbledon singles title came in 2016 when she defeated Angelique Kerber for her staggering seventh singles crown at SW19. Recently, she has been a Wimbledon singles finalist in 2018 and 2019 as well.
Williams's Wimbledon prowess also extends to women's doubles. She and sister Venus are 6-0 in Wimbledon women's doubles finals.