Serena Williams has taken the first visible step in her return to competition at the HSBC Championships, appearing on the Queen’s Club practice court ahead of the tournament. Williams accepted a wild card into the doubles draw at Queen’s Club and will partner WTA world No. 9 Victoria Mboko for what will be her first professional match since the 2022 US Open.

The move followed earlier reports that Williams had re-entered the International Tennis Integrity Association’s anti-doping testing pool, a necessary procedural step that included a six-month cooling period. Williams was officially eligible to compete as of February 22, though she had not specified when she planned to resume playing in tour events.

Her hiatus began after a third-round loss to Ajla Tomljanovic at the 2022 US Open, a period during which she said she “evolved” away from the tour. Rumors of a comeback gathered momentum once she returned to testing, and the decision to accept a doubles wild card confirmed that her return would begin at Queen’s Club.

In the weeks before the announcement Williams maintained a high level of on-court preparation, practicing intensely in Florida alongside WTA players such as Alycia Parks. Her appearance on the practice court at the HSBC Championships was her first on-site session ahead of the event and marks the next chapter in a carefully managed re-entry to professional competition.

The doubles entry in London will be Williams’s first pro-level match in nearly four years and will pair her with Mboko, giving fans and observers a first look at how Williams performs in match conditions after an extended absence.

Serena Williams has confirmed she will return to competitive tennis at 44, accepting a wild card to play doubles at the HSBC Championships at Queen’s Club. It will be her first tournament appearance since the third round of the 2022 US Open, the match that accompanied an announced “evolution” away from the sport.

Williams remains one of the most decorated players of the Open Era. She turned professional in 1995 at 14, won 23 Grand Slam titles—surpassing Stefanie Graf at the 2017 Australian Open—and spent 319 weeks as the WTA’s world No. 1, the third-longest total behind Graf and Martina Navratilova. Rather than a formal retirement in 2022, Williams described her shift in status as an “evolution.”

Off court, Williams is a mother of two. Her elder daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., was born in 2017, and her second daughter, Adira River, arrived in 2023. During her time away from regular competition she has pursued business projects and taken on a role as a spokesperson for Ro, a telehealth company that markets GLP-1 weight-loss medications. Williams said she lost 34 pounds on Zepbound and appeared in a Ro commercial that aired during Super Bowl LX earlier this year.

Her elder sister Venus has continued competing into her 40s, becoming the oldest woman to win a professional tennis match in more than 20 years at the Mubadala Citi DC Open last summer and reaching the US Open quarterfinals in women’s doubles alongside Leylah Fernandez. After Venus pushed Karolina Muchova to three sets at the US Open in singles, Serena paid tribute on social media: “Strength, courage, determination, class, perseverance, inspiration… there’s not enough words to describe how proud I am of you @VenusWilliams,” Serena captioned. “P.S. I hope to be like you.”

It was around that time that speculation about Serena’s own return gathered pace, and in December she re-entered the International Tennis Integrity Association’s anti-doping testing pool, a move that helped fuel comeback rumours ahead of her doubles entry at Queen’s Club.

Three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka will bring his farewell season to a close on home soil in October, the Swiss Indoors Basel has indicated.

The tournament announced plans for a special evening on Monday, October 26 at 6 p.m., with a pre-sale launching Wednesday. “An emotional evening full of memories, surprises and magical moments from the career of the Vaud-born superstar awaits spectators,” organizers teased. The statement also made clear the end point of his farewell season: “He would have liked to keep playing forever. But Basel marks the end of the line for Stan Wawrinka as he says goodbye to the game,” the tournament wrote.

Wawrinka began his final season with encouraging signs, competing at the United Cup and reaching the third round of the Australian Open. The 41-year-old returned to the Top 100 in February and March before falling back in the rankings and missing the initial Roland Garros main-draw entry cutoff. He remains due to be recognized following his last French Open match.

Preparations for Paris suffered a setback when Wawrinka withdrew from his second-round qualifying match in Rome. According to the entry, back pain prevented him from taking on Pablo Carreño Busta, forcing an early end to his bid in the Italian event.

The Basel tribute is presented as a final, formal farewell on the site where Wawrinka will end his professional career. Organizers promise an evening that reflects on the highlights of his time on tour and affords fans a chance to celebrate the Vaud-born star before he departs the tour.