The most prominent women’s tennis player in the world will be playing at Wimbledon. According to an announcement from The All England Club on Tuesday, Serena Williams will participate in the tournament. Williams was granted a wild-card entry for the singles portion of the Grand Slam tournament, which will begin on June 27.
During the 2021 installment of Wimbledon, Williams slipped on the grass court during the first set of her first round match and was forced to leave the tournament. It marked just the second mid-match retirement for Williams at any Grand Slam tournament in her professional career — and her first since 1998.
Williams, 40, has not participated at the professional level since sustaining that injury.
When the initial singles list for Wimbledon was released earlier in June, Williams’ name was absent. However, she was among a group of six women that were awarded a wild-card entry during a singles draw on Tuesday. In addition to Williams, British players Katie Boulter, Jodie Burrage, Sonay Kartal, Yuriko Miyazaki and Katie Swan earned wild-card spots for the 2022 edition of Wimbledon.
Williams has won Wimbledon a whopping seven times throughout her legendary career, which is good fro the Open era record. Her last triumph at Wimbledon came in 2016, when she defeated German Angelique Kerber in the final. The American tennis star was also the runner-up at Wimbledon in 2018 and 2019.
Williams needs just one more Grand Slam win to tie Margaret Court’s record of career 24 Grand Slam titles, which has stood since 1973.
