Serena Williams will rejoin the WTA Tour at the HSBC Championships in Queen’s Club, ending a four-year competitive absence since her farewell at the US Open. Her comeback arrives amid a public profile that now includes business ventures and major endorsement work, most notably a multi-year partnership with Ro, the telehealth company offering GLP-1 treatments.

Williams has been open about using Zepbound (tirzepatide) through Ro’s program and has credited the drug with substantial health changes since stepping away from the tour. “Some of my health stats are even better than they were when I was playing tennis professionally, if you can imagine that!” she said. She has reported a 34-pound weight loss after one year on Zepbound, steadier blood sugar, reduced cardiovascular risk and a 30 percent improvement in total cholesterol. In a Ro video she added, “There’s less stress on my knees, so I can pull off moves that I could, quite frankly, never do before,” and “Plus I just have so much more energy now to show up for my kids, for my family and just for my life in general.”

Williams also discussed the decision in Vogue. “I’ve heard negative comments, along with a tremendous amount of positive comments, about my body my entire life,” she told Vogue’s Margaux Anbouba. “For lack of a better way to say it, I don’t really care what people are saying about my body anymore. But what is important to me is transparency…

“It was so hard after I had (my first daughter) Olympia. I was literally on the court every day, doing nothing else. I had been the ultimate super-athlete… but I could never get back to where I needed to be, no matter what I did.

“My whole life is being in the gym… I would always get to a certain point on the scale, but I could never get below that. That’s when I decided that it was time to try something different and got on the GLP-1 with Ro.”

Ro says its patients lose an average of 14–20 percent of body weight after a year, with total cholesterol improving by about 4.8 percent. The company names Williams a paid partner and discloses a family investment; her husband, venture capitalist and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, is an investor and sits on Ro’s board. Williams also starred in Ro’s “Healthier on Ro” campaign during Super Bowl LX.

For sport governance, WADA currently permits semaglutides and tirzepatides but placed semaglutide on its Monitoring Program in 2024 and tirzepatide in 2025. That program tracks usage trends and potential risks and may lead to future review. Evidence does not show GLP-1s directly enhance performance in healthy, non-diabetic athletes, though concerns remain for weight-sensitive sports. Possible drawbacks include appetite suppression, difficulty meeting fueling needs, and slower gastric emptying that can complicate pre-match nutrition, endurance and recovery.

Marketa Vondrousova has been charged by the International Tennis Integrity Agency after an out-of-competition drug test in December and has vowed to clear her name. The 2023 Wimbledon champion faces a potential ban of up to four years if the charge is upheld.

The ITIA accused Vondrousova of “refusing or failing to submit to Sample collection without compelling justification after notification by a duly authorized Person.” According to the player’s account, an officer rang her doorbell after 8 p.m., would not identify himself and demanded an immediate urine test. In an Instagram Story at the time she called it a “serious intrusion of my privacy.”

On Friday Vondrousova posted a longer explanation on social media, detailing the mental strain of injuries, sleep problems and “years of hateful messages and threats” that she said affected her sense of safety. “When someone rang my door late at night without properly identifying themselves or following protocol—I reacted like a person who felt scared,” she wrote. “In that moment, it was about feeling safe, not about avoiding anything.”

Vondrousova also says the unexpected visitor triggered memories of her countrywoman Petra Kvitova’s 2016 stabbing. She wrote that “Experts confirmed I suffered an Acute Stress Reaction (F43.0) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (F41.1).” She added that “In that moment, fear clouded my judgment and I just couldn’t process the situation rationally. After what happened to Petra (Kvitova), we don’t take strangers at our door lightly.” The earlier headline wording noted that “fear clouded (my) judgment,” reflecting that same explanation.

The ITIA confirmed an investigation is under way and issued the statement: “We can confirm that an investigation is underway and the player has been charged with refusing a test. At this stage, we are not able to comment any further on the specifics.” The charge does not carry an automatic suspension.

Vondrousova has not played a singles match since January because of a shoulder injury, but she did appear for Czechia in Billie Jean King Cup doubles over the weekend. Tennis players are required by the ITIA and WADA to log their Whereabouts, including a daily one-hour window, though out-of-competition testing can occur outside those designated windows.

Episode 6 of The Big T is now available at TheBigT.com. Hosts Andrea Petkovic and Mark Petchey open with a wide-ranging conversation that moves from recent sporting events into tennis proper.

They first discuss the Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl, and Petkovic offered a measured take on the halftime performance: “I think art is not supposed to be for everybody. It is supposed to represent something of what the artist wants to express, from their own life experience, and from their own self.

A lot of people will resonate with that, and many people won’t. Andrea Petkovic, on Bad Bunny

Petch, for his non-tennis take, discussed the daring but ultimately dangerous decision Lindsay Vonn made to take part in the Winter Games after tearing her ACL just days earlier.

“People in that sphere, who have done absolutely incredible things, have absolute autonomy about deciding whether they want to go out and perform. If we didn’t allow great athletes and great people to try and have great failures, we’d still be living in caves.

I kind of found it inspiring. I know there’s a lot of people that don’t feel that. Mark Petchey, on Lindsay Vonn

The episode then turns to a story reshaping the tennis calendar: the possibility of Serena Williams returning to competition. It has been more than three years since the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion last played. On February 22 she will be eligible to compete after filing the required paperwork with the International Tennis Integrity Agency, the sport’s drug-testing organization.

“There’s no question there is a plan, there’s something that is bubbling around in the background,” says Petchey. “Austin starts on February 23rd…” noted Petkovic with a smile, having already looked at the calendar. (Venus Williams has already accepted a wild card into the tournament.)

“If she’s going to do this,” says Petchey, “then why would not turn up at Indian Wells and Miami and play doubles with Venus?”

Petkovic notes that Williams has returned to the anti-doping list for six months, exposing herself and her family to additional scrutiny. “She is planning something big, and personally cannot wait!”

Petchey and Petkovic also dig into a new and perhaps unlikely rivalry between Patrick Mouratoglou and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Listen to the full episode at TheBigT.com or call 844-678-BIGT for more.