Key Points
- Serena Williams accepted a wild card into the Wimbledon 2026 women's singles draw.
- It is her first major singles match since the 2022 US Open third round.
- The 44-year-old took the eighth and final women's singles wild card.
- She also holds a Wimbledon doubles wild card with sister Venus.
Serena Williams is going back into a Grand Slam singles draw. The All England Club confirmed on June 21 that the 23-time major champion has accepted a wild card into the Wimbledon 2026 women's singles field — the eighth and final wild card on the women's side, and her first singles match at a major since she lost in the third round of the 2022 US Open.
The comeback, stage by stage
This did not come from nowhere. Williams, now 44, announced her return earlier this month and played her first competitive match in nearly four years at Queen's Club, partnering Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko in doubles. They won their opener before withdrawing when Mboko hurt her knee. The singles wild card is the far bigger step: doubles is a measured re-entry; singles at Wimbledon is the deep end.
What she is walking into
Williams will learn her first-round opponent when the singles draw is made June 26, with the tournament starting June 29. The field is loaded — defending champion Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka, and Coco Gauff are all in it, as covered in our Wimbledon 2026 preview. A seven-time Wimbledon singles champion returning at 44 is not a title favorite, and the result on the scoreboard is almost beside the point. The story is that she is in the draw at all.
The read
Williams left the sport in 2022 on her own terms, never using the word retirement. Three years later she is doing the rarest thing in tennis: walking back into the singles draw at the place she won seven times. She will also play doubles with Venus, the sisters' first Wimbledon pairing in a decade. For an athlete who spent two decades turning her name into a business that outgrew the sport, this is the part that no longer needs to make money — it is Williams reminding everyone, on the lawn where she built the legend, that the competitor never actually left.
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