Serena Williams stayed at the center of online attention throughout 2025 with a string of public moments that kept fans and the media talking. Though she retired three years earlier, her appearances and actions generated widespread reaction.

She made a high-profile cameo at Super Bowl LIX, joining headline performer Kendrick Lamar during the Halftime Show and dancing to “Not Like Us.” Her crip-walking from the stage quickly spread across social platforms, drawing praise from fellow player Coco Gauff, who wrote on X: “Serena ate that…” The appearance was amplified by Lamar’s lyrical reference to Williams in a Grammy-winning track, in which he warned Drake that he “better not speak on Serena” amid that ongoing rap feud.

Tennis history also resurfaced in 2025 when Williams travelled to Newport, R.I., for Maria Sharapova’s induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. The two, who first met on tour in 2004 and played each other 22 times with Williams leading 20–2, offered a reminder of their rivalry and shared place in the sport’s modern era. Introducing Sharapova, Williams called her a “forever friend” and addressed the audience directly: “I know I’m probably the last person you would be expecting to see here tonight!” She added, “To the world, we looked miles and miles apart. The truth is, we weren’t. We wanted the exact same thing at the exact same time: to be the very best…” and she closed that tribute by saying, “There are only a few players in my career who challenged me to be my very best every time we stepped out onto the court. Maria Sharapova was one of them.”

The third flashpoint came when fans discovered Williams had been added to the International Registered Testing Pool of the International Tennis Integrity Agency. Reports said she had requested reinstatement as early as October, a move widely read as a possible first step toward a comeback. Questions about mixed doubles at the US Open or a push for a 24th major followed until Williams addressed the speculation herself on X: “Omg yall I’m NOT coming back. This wildfire is crazy…”

Serena Williams has taken a formal step that opens the door to a return to professional tennis. The International Tennis Integrity Agency confirmed that Williams notified the organization she wants to be reinstated into the International Registered Testing Pool. That pool is the mandatory list for players seeking to re-enter competition.

Williams, a 23-time major champion, last competed at the 2022 US Open, reaching the third round. She officially registered her retirement with the ITIA on Sept. 3, 2022, but she never publicly used the word “retirement,” preferring to say she was “evolving away” from professional tennis.

The most concrete hint of a comeback arrived when her name appeared on an updated ITIA testing-pool list dated Oct. 6 of this year. At the same time she remains on the agency’s retired players list with the September 2022 retirement date until any return is finalized.

During her time away from the tour Williams has focused on a growing business portfolio and family life. She is a mother of two, Alexis Olympia born in 2017 and Adira River born in 2023. Williams has invested in several women’s sports properties, including Angel City FC and the WNBA, and continues corporate partnerships. Her endorsements include the weight-loss drug Zepbound, which contains GLP-1s, a substance monitored by WADA.

She has also maintained a visible public presence, making a cameo in the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show and recently helping induct her longtime rival Maria Sharapova into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Williams has teased fans with social media posts of herself hitting on court with Olympia and photos showing off her toned physique.

The ITIA testing pool covers the Top 100 men’s and women’s singles players, elite doubles and wheelchair players, and athletes aiming to return to competition after a long break. Williams’ return to that pool represents the clearest procedural sign yet that she is preparing the path back to professional play.

© 2025 Tim Mosenfelder

The International Tennis Integrity Agency has started a trial program to offer financial, legal and well-being assistance to players who are the subject of doping or match-fixing investigations. The initiative begins immediately and will be reviewed after next year.

Under the trial, a player can receive up to $5,000 to have a medicine or supplement analysed by a laboratory accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency to check for contamination. The same amount is available to help identify possible sources of contaminated meat, a common explanation for failed doping tests in sport.

Sport Resolutions, the independent dispute resolution service that runs tribunals for anti-doping cases in tennis, will extend its free legal support to the point when a player first tests positive for a banned substance. Until now, that assistance was provided only after a player was formally charged.

Sporting Chance will offer six sessions of confidential well-being support to people under investigation for anti-corruption or anti-doping violations.

“We recognize the process can come at both a financial and emotional cost,” ITIA CEO Karen Moorhouse said.

“No player picks up a tennis racket as a child with any motivation other than playing the game,” she said. “Individuals find themselves in these situations for a lot of reasons, and so no matter what those reasons are, and where the case ends up, they also deserve someone to talk to.”

The ITIA played a role in two high-profile doping cases that began last year and resulted in short bans for players who have been ranked No. 1 and won multiple Grand Slam titles, Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek.

Sinner reached a deal with WADA to accept a three-month suspension that ended this April after that group appealed an exoneration from the ITIA based on what it determined was an accidental contamination by an anabolic steroid. Swiatek agreed to a one-month ban that was partly served during last off-season after she tested positive because of what she said was a contaminated non-prescription medication.

Karen Moorhouse, ITIA CEO