NOTHING TO PROVE – Serena is back at Wimbledon!

Having sat just inches away from Serena Williams at her first ever press conference at Queen’s Club, I then watched the entirety of her victorious doubles match alongside Vicky Mboko from a few feet away, along with a sold-out and totally enthralled Andy Murray Arena. Plus I spoke to Mboko herself about playing alongside the legend, so I think you could say I got fully caught up in the Big Tennis Comeback story.

It was no surprise when Serena went on to play doubles in Berlin, this time alongside Karolina Muchova, whose style she admires. Which in turn prepared us for the announcement that Serena (44) was going to play doubles alongside her big sis, Venus (46), at Wimbledon.

But when Serena took the very last wild card spot for the singles at the All England Club, jaws dropped all round the tennis world. Was this maybe hubris or even madness? Or could the Queen of SW19 come back and surprise us in one last, Sinatra-style swansong? The mix of chatter and speculation and endless column inches further pushed the excitement levels all the way up to eleven.

How did we get here? To a time when Serena’s peers, like skier Lindsey Vonn (41) and sprinter Allyson Felix (40), also refuse to give up on their sporting dreams. How – and perhaps why – are they defying time? Vonn and Felix have their own ambitions, their raisons d’être, but for Serena, there seems to be a mix of wanting to show her young daughters what she can achieve, getting her team back together in Avengers Assemble style, and even enjoying herself. And with Venus never stopping, there might even be a bit of sibling rivalry to factor in…

All this makes sense in doubles, which always seems like the most fun you can have on grass, but singles is another matter altogether. You’re on your own. So let’s rewind the story.

Serena was simply supreme in the first couple of decades of the 21^st Century. She collected Slams and other titles like the rest of us acquired supermarket loyalty points. She’d already picked up the French and US Open singles titles in 1999 – then just went on the most incredible run, constantly ranked Number One in the world, also winning singles and doubles gold in the London 2012 Olympics, sometimes succumbing to injury, and occasionally defeating her own sister in Grand Slam finals.

Scorched

I saw last saw Serena live and in person at the US Open in 2014 in a Queens heatwave, the GOAT arriving on court in immaculately tailored jacket as we melted in the upper tier of Arthur Ashe Stadium. She scorched her way through the semi-finals en route to victory over her great friend Caroline Wozniacki, whose own semi-final opponent had collapsed and been taken off court in a wheelchair mid-match.

For a couple more years she still couldn’t stop winning, even equalling Steffi Graf’s remarkable 186 consecutive weeks ranked No 1. Rather remarkably she also won the Australian Open in 2017 when pregnant with her first child, Olympia. Inevitable post-pregnancy time-out meant her ranking dropped to 181. Various ups and downs, further injuries and controversies – including the notorious US Open final in 2018 where she lost her cool and lost the match to Naomi Osaka – dogged her progress.

By the end of 2019 Serena was back in the top ten, but just three years later she was down to 320 in the rankings and made the difficult decision to quit. The following year, 2023, she gave birth to her second child, Adira, and has since been busy with business, happily supporting other women and various women’s sports. The GOAT resting on her well-deserved laurels and surveying her 23 singles titles and 73 titles overall.

Nothing to prove. End of an era. Period.

Think again…

Speculation

Last year someone spotted Serena’s name on the drug-testing registration list and speculation spiralled out of control. Surely she couldn’t be coming back so long after her last appearance? It was harder to deny the possibility when her name was on the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) reinstatements list earlier this year.

Then, a few days before Queen’s, the news broke that Serena would indeed be competing there, in an unseeded doubles partnership with fast-rising Canadian teenager Vicky Mboko. When I spoke to Mboko about the very prospect of teaming up with the living legend, she could not hide her excitement. She also made sure to tell me about Serena’s cheeky sense of humour. “She’s just kind of funny on court. She’ll have these little jokes here and there, for example, if we’re playing doubles, she’ll crack a joke. And if we’re playing against her hitting partners, she’ll just say: oh, let’s just go for them!”

Crucially, Serena has picked Rennae Stubbs to be on her team as assistant coach. “I loved working with her in New York,” says Serena, “and we always stayed in contact. I said if I ever do this again, we’ll see what happens. She always was there to motivate me in case I did want to try it again. She’s very lighthearted, which is nice.”

Returning the compliment, Stubbs agrees with Mboko on Serena’s sense of humour, adding: “She’s just so fun to be around.”

As for the rest of her training entourage, Serena says: “I reassembled our team. The trainer, Derek is very intense, a former athlete himself. We always work out together. We got back together, and we just had fun and fought and fought and had fun and fought.”

No-brainer

It already feels like a no-brainer decision. Serena told her pals that with it was the perfect time to get out there again, and have fun. She added that she’d really missed the atmosphere as well as the travel. “I love travelling. It’s interesting because I’ve done it literally my entire life, so when you stop something that you’ve done since… honestly I don’t even remember a start date… you take it for granted. So now there’s different things I can try to experience in a different way, that I’ve never been able to do before. And also do it with my family.”

Not that coming back on grass was the easiest way to ease herself back in. And she freely admits that although it’s much like getting back on a bike again, “it’s like riding a bike… up a hill! But enjoying the ride.”

When the Serena-Vicky doubles partnership finally entered the court, the evening air was thick with expectation as 9,000 spectators watched on. The start was rusty for the GOAT, but her new 19-year-old pal picked up the slack as the icon gradually grew into the match. A tight first set against the third seeds Erin Routliffe & Nicole Melichar-Martinez just tilted the North Americans’ way on a tie-breaker, before they got in the swing of things to win the second set 6-2. Typically, Serena gave herself a C-minus score, which was a tad harsh, as she finished the match with an ace. 

Mboko was equally honest about their performance, noting that it was tough at times, with room for improvement, but telling Serena not to be too hard on herself. You could see them discussing the finer points throughout, revving each other up, exchanging gags and high-fives and definitely feeding off the wildly exuberant crowd. Meanwhile Serena’s daughters watched on with their dad, glad to be reunited with mum post-match.

Nerves

On reflection, Serena admitted to being nervous, but put that to the back of her mind while foregrounding having fun, which she definitely did. “I got nervous right before the match, maybe 30 minutes before, and then I just let it go.”

As for the Queen’s audience, she could sense their great expectations, but nevertheless managed to focus. “I think that’s the beauty of being an athlete and understanding the importance of honing in and concentrating. I feel like once you have been there and you understand that, it doesn’t matter what’s going on in the outside world, as long as you know what you’re there for.”

She also put things in perspective by observing that she’d never been able to play at Queen’s before. “It was always just the men. It feels really special to play somewhere so iconic.”

Just as punters were prepping to watch the pairing in the second round, Vicky Mboko was playing her first singles match against Czech grass court specialst Karolina Pliskova, a topsy turvy game that sadly saw Mboko slip at the back of the court and retire hurt, which later turned out to be an MCL injury. So no more doubles joy for Serena and her fans at that moment, and a grass-season-ending setback for Mboko. 

Meanwhile, Serena was keeping her cards close to her chest on Wimbledon. She simply would not be pushed into making a decision. On playing doubles in SW19 she said: “It’s just a day at a time. I still have a little time to decide, and they have been great about giving me that space and time to decide.” Which she did before Queen’s ended, announcing she’d be back together with Venus (above) as a wild card pairing.

Singles

She was even more guarded at the possibility of playing singles at Wimbledon. “I’m putting no pressure on myself. I’ve had enough pressure. For me right now it’s really just about… it’s so many elements, it’s really about my kids getting to see me play. And having an opportunity to be able to possibly do that one last time is kind of cool and exciting. So there’s a little bit of that too.

“But for singles, I can’t say yeah, I can’t say no right now. I feel like I probably need to train a little bit more if I want to play singles. We’ll see if I get there, and if not that’s not my journey right now.”

Fast forward a couple of weeks and just as time was running out, the announcement came that Serena was in for the singles. Again as a wild card. 

There is a theory that although she says she has nothing to prove, Serena is still bruised from her last appearances at Wimbledon. In 2021 she slipped and fell on Centre Court, suffering a hamstring injury, and the following year she lost in the first round to then-No 115, rank outsider Harmony Tan. She’s not been back since.

Listening to some of her old adversaries, you can tell how much they admire Serena’s pluck at returning. In particular, old foe and now friend Maria Sharapova says: “I’m excited to watch her comeback. It’s extraordinary. When you’ve done something for such a long time, it’s ingrained in you, it’s such a huge part of your identity.

“You always know the end will come sooner than in other professions. Whether it’s because your body breaks down or you lose interest or you want to start a family. Serena’s in an incredible position and wants to showcase her incredible gift and talent to her two daughters.”

Caroline Wozniacki herself says: “I’m really happy that she’s back. She hasn’t played singles yet. But she’s Serena; she can do anything.”

Those in the higher echelons of sport, like IBM VP, Kameryn Stanhouse, agree, declaring that: “Serena dropping in is the icing on the cake.”

Reality check

Having watched Serena up close in the doubles, however, the reality check is that some of her previously robust and dependable shots – including overheads and volleys – were slightly off, and her movement around the court needs work. Though that dynamite serve and her evergreen groundstrokes impressed. And who’s to say she won’t overcome the problematic stuff with time and practice.

For now it’s hard to argue with Serena’s belief that as long as you take care of yourself and keep healthy, “you can do anything at any age.’

Now the Wimbledon draw has been made, wild card Serena Williams knows that she’s playing the Australian youngster Maya Joint in first round at Wimbledon. And if it’s anything like her Queen’s show, then it’s frankly unmissable. Her opponent has been dogged by injuries in 2026, and is currently ranked 53 in singles, but knows her way around grass courts, having triumphed at Eastbourne last year.

According to Serena though, the pressure is off. Everything now is a bonus and she’s having the time of her life while savouring every minute.

“I don’t need to win, I’ve won more than most people have in their whole lives,” she says, “That is not important to me. It’s important that I keep reminding myself of that because I don’t have anything to prove. I don’t have anything to lose. Everything here is just a gain.” 

Photos: Helen M Jerome