JAKARTA - Legendary American tennis player Serena Williams will be the main attraction in the 2026 Wimbledon Grand Slam tournament after receiving a wildcard from the All England Club as the organizer.
The holder of seven Wimbledon singles titles had previously been confirmed to appear, but only for the doubles with his sister Venus Williams. The organizers then announced that he would take part in the singles.
His presence at Wimbledon 2026 also marked his first appearance at the tournament in the last four years. When the organizers confirmed the news through their official social media, the response in cyberspace immediately flowed.
"This is not a practice," the tournament wrote in a post on their Instagram account as quoted by Channel News Asia.
The announcement that Serena, who is currently 44 years old, will be down in the singles automatically presents an incredible storyline for the tournament which is scheduled to start rolling on June 29, 2026.
The tennis player who has collected 23 singles Grand Slam titles has previously marked his return to the court at this month's Queen's Club Championships after a four-year absence. There, he played in doubles with Canadian Victoria Mboko.
In addition, Serena has also honed her skills with appearances in the doubles at the tournament in Berlin this week.
Serena, widely regarded as one of the greatest female tennis players of all time, last played a singles match at Wimbledon also through a wildcard facility in 2022. At that time, his steps stopped immediately in the first round after losing to Harmony Tan.
After the US Open tournament in the same year, Serena had stated that she wanted to stay away from tennis and had never played in the singles since then. However, she never officially announced her retirement from the tennis world.
History records that Serena first appeared on the Wimbledon grass in 1998 and managed to reach the third round of the singles.
He then clinched his first title at this grass-court tournament in 2002 after defeating his sister, Venus, in the final match.
The success was also the beginning of his dominance in the women's singles sector until he was able to occupy the number one position in the WTA world rankings for a total of 319 weeks.
Serena completed her singles collection at Wimbledon by becoming the champion in 2003, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015, and 2016. In addition, she also collected six women's doubles titles at the same tournament with Venus.
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