ST. PETERSBURG, FL, USA — The WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz on Monday celebrates the news that Serena Williams is set to return to professional tennis, nearly four years after she stepped away from the sport at the 2022 US Open. The American tennis legend, who was a month shy of her 41st birthday when she said goodbye, plans to restart her iconic career at next week’s HSBC Championships, a WTA 500 event staged at the Queen’s Club in London. Williams has been awarded a wild card to play doubles, with a partner to be announced in due course.
Over the course of her game-changing career to date, Williams, who is now 44 years, eight months old, spent 319 weeks as the WTA World No.1. Her haul of 73 singles titles, including 23 Grand Slam trophies won over an 18-season period, is the Open Era record. The winner of 39 major titles overall, as well as multiple Olympic medals, she remains the only player to achieve a ‘Career Golden Slam’ in singles and doubles and is the prize money leader in women’s sports.
“Serena is one of the greatest athletes of all-time, with a legacy that extends far beyond the court,” said Valerie Camillo, Chair of the WTA. “Her return is an expression of her passion for competition, and I cannot wait to see her face a new generation of top players. Serena is not just a great champion. She’s a successful entrepreneur, a powerful advocate for the issues that matter — and one of the most iconic women in the world. We are thrilled to welcome her back to the WTA Tour at this hugely exciting moment for women’s tennis.”
Now a mother of two daughters, Olympia (born 2017) and Adira (born 2023), Williams is already among nine singles No.1s who’ve returned to the WTA Tour after giving birth, along with Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Lindsay Davenport, Kim Clijsters, Victoria Azarenka, Caroline Wozniacki, Angelique Kerber and Naomi Osaka.
“Serena brought the game to another level and it is incredible for the sport that she’s pushing the boundaries and coming back,” said Martina Navratilova, the previous oldest WTA World No.1 to launch a comeback after retirement, at 43 years, 10 months. “To many of the younger players, they never had the opportunity to play her; some may have never watched her on television so this will be a new and exciting experience.”
WTA
Serena’s encore in context
In recent years, Williams has focused on a range of entrepreneurial endeavors. Serena Ventures, a venture capital fund created in 2017, has invested in more than 85 companies, focusing on businesses founded by women or people of color. Her portfolio of sports-related investments includes stakes in WNBA team Toronto Tempo and NWSL’s Angel City FC. This year, she appeared in the Prime Video docuseries The CEO Club, also serving as an executive producer through her company, Nine Two Six Productions.
When Navratilova returned to action in 2000, she had been out of the game for longer – nearly six years, notwithstanding a sole doubles appearance at the 1995 US Open – but had retired at a younger age than Serena, at the Virginia Slims Championships (WTA Finals) in 1994, when she was 38.
Decades later, Navratilova is still the oldest player to win a Grand Slam singles match; she was 47 years and eight months old when she defeated Catalina Castaño in the first round of 2004 Wimbledon. During this period, she won three mixed doubles Grand Slam titles and capped her career by winning the 2006 US Open with Bob Bryan, a few weeks before her 50th birthday.
In women’s doubles, Lisa Raymond holds the record for oldest Grand Slam champion – the American was 38 years and 30 days old when she captured the 2011 US Open with Liezel Huber. With respect to doubles teams, Hsieh Su-Wei and Barbora Strycova had a combined age of 74 years and 303 days when they won Wimbledon in 2023.
WTA
Serena’s career highlights so far
Williams played her first WTA qualifying match at Québec City in 1995 and made her main draw debut at Moscow in 1997, when she was 15. By the end of 1998, she was inside the world’s Top 20 and a Top 5 season finish in 1999 – the year she won the first of her 73 singles titles (Paris Indoors) and 23 Grand Slam titles (US Open) – meant she was on her way to redefining the game.
Williams was 20 when she rose to WTA World No.1 on July 8, 2002. Only Stefanie Graf and Martina Navratilova have topped the rankings for longer than 319 weeks and Williams shares with Graf a record streak of 186 consecutive weeks at the summit. Securing the Year-End WTA No.1 Ranking on five occasions, Williams posted 16 Top 10 seasons and in April 2017, at the age of 35, she became the oldest player to rank No.1 – 15 years after her first reign.
Williams also enjoyed tremendous success in doubles. She compiled a win-loss record of 192-35 and won 22 of her 23 titles with Venus Williams, the other coming with Alexandra Stevenson at Leipzig in 2002. She only ever lost two doubles finals, the most recent being at Auckland in 2020, partnering Caroline Wozniacki. The Williams sisters were unbeaten in 14 Grand Slam finals and in the summer of 2010 jointly held the WTA Doubles World No.1 ranking for eight weeks. Serena’s first success at the majors actually came in mixed doubles, with titles at Wimbledon and the US Open in 1998, both with Max Mirnyi.
Additionally, Olympic triumphs make Williams the only player – female or male – to achieve a ‘Career Golden Slam’ by winning the singles and doubles at all four majors at some point, as well as gold medals in both singles (2012 London) and doubles (2000 Sydney, 2008 Beijing and 2012 London, all with Venus).
Numbers to build on
Williams played the last of her 33 Grand Slam finals at the 2019 US Open, against Bianca Andreescu – 20 years after she defeated then-World No.1 Martina Hingis for her first major at the 1999 US Open. Her last Grand Slam title came at the 2017 Australian Open, where she defeated Venus in the final whilst pregnant with Olympia.
Following her third-round loss to Ajla Tomljanovic at the 2022 US Open, she stepped away with a remarkable 858-156 career win-loss record (.846) – the fourth most singles wins in WTA history, trailing only Navratilova (1442), Chris Evert (1309) and Graf (902). From her 81 Grand Slam appearances, she won a record 367 matches, ahead of Navratilova’s 306.
Among many records set, Williams remains the all-time prize money leader in women’s sports, earning more than $94.8 million during her career. She topped the annual WTA prize money charts on six occasions (2002, 2008-09, 2013-15). Her 2013 earnings of $12,385,572 remained the WTA record for a single season until Aryna Sabalenka surpassed $15 million in 2025.
