Serena Williams to play at Wimbledon after getting doubles wild card with Venus

By Eleanor Crooks, Press Association Tennis Correspondent

Serena Williams will make her return to Wimbledon in women’s doubles with sister Venus.

The pair have been given a wild card into the Championships, beginning on June 29th, as Serena continues her comeback.

The 44-year-old played her first match since 2022 last week at Queen’s Club, winning one round alongside Victoria Mboko before the Canadian was forced to pull out through injury.

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The Williams sisters are six-time doubles champions at Wimbledon, winning their last title on their most recent appearance together a decade ago.

Neither Serena nor Venus has yet been given a wild card into the women’s singles, although intriguingly one spot remains open.

There has been much speculation about whether Serena intends to return to singles, and the 23-time grand slam champion said when quizzed at Queen’s that it was “not my journey right now”.

Her last appearance at Wimbledon came four years ago, when she lost in the first round to France’s Harmony Tan, before “evolving away” from tennis later that summer at the US Open.

French Open runner-up Maja Chwalinska, whose fairy tale run in Paris catapulted her from outside the top 100 to 21 in the rankings, has been awarded a wild card and will be seeded.

In the men’s singles, Grigor Dimitrov, who was leading eventual champion Jannik Sinner by two sets to love in the fourth round last year before being cruelly struck down by injury, has made the cut along with the retiring Stan Wawrinka.

But former British number one Dan Evans, who announced last week that Wimbledon will be the final tournament of his career, looks set to have to go through qualifying.

The 36-year-old, who has been a stalwart for Great Britain in Davis Cup, hit out at the Lawn Tennis Association for not giving him a wild card into the HSBC Championships at Queen’s this week.

He lost in the opening round of qualifying and has won just one of the six matches he has played this season, dropping to 244th in the rankings.

Two spots remain open and there are a number of candidates including popular Frenchman Gael Monfils, who will retire at the end of the season, and former finalists Nick Kyrgios and Matteo Berrettini.

Evans and Kyrgios have both been given wild cards into the men’s doubles with Henry Searle and Alexander Bublik, respectively.

British quartet Jacob Fearnley, Arthur Fery, Jack Pinnington Jones and Toby Samuel have been awarded singles wild cards, and other home hopefuls will also be eyeing up the final two spots.

In the women’s singles, six British players have received wild cards – Harriet Dart, Katie Swan, debutante Alicia Dudeney and teenage trio Mika Stojsavljevic, Mimi Xu and Hannah Klugman.

Oliver Tarvet, who made headlines last year when he came through qualifying and reached the second round, taking on Carlos Alcaraz on Centre Court, will have to try to navigate that route again.