SERENA WILLIAMS is set for a surprise return to Wimbledon a year after her last match.
The 23-time grand slam singles champion made a tearful exit in the first round 12 months ago after retiring during the first set against Aliaksandra Sasnovich due to a leg injury and doubts had been growing about whether she would return to the sport.
But on Tuesday Williams posted on Instagram: “SW and SW19. It’s a date. 2022 See you there.”
Intriguingly, the 40-year-old also tagged Eastbourne in her post, indicating she could potentially play in next week’s Rothesay International Eastbourne.
It is unclear whether Williams, now ranked a lowly 1208, is intending to play singles or doubles, which is less demanding physically.
She could have entered using a protected ranking reserved for players who have been sidelined through a long-term injury but did not do so and will therefore need a wild card.
The initial batch of wild cards for singles and doubles will be announced on Wednesday.
![Serena Williams was in tears after suffering an injury at Wimbledon last summer](http://image.assets.pressassociation.io/v2/image/production/c111b2f5052b00ced1f8f8a9e186a006Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjU1MjkzNzk1/2.60652850.jpg?w=640)
Tennis has been conspicuous by its absence in most of Williams’ Instagram posts over the last year, with the focus on her business ventures and life as a mother to four-year-old daughter Olympia.
Suspicions that she had effectively retired grew when her long-time coach Patrick Mouratoglou revealed in April that he had taken on a new role with Simona Halep.
Wimbledon is widely considered Williams’ best chance of claiming a 24th slam singles crown to equal Margaret Court’s all-time record.
She has twice reached the final since returning from maternity leave in 2018, losing to Angelique Kerber that summer and Halep the following year.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here