Serena Williams will play singles at Wimbledon after accepting a wild card invitation

LONDON (AP) — Serena Williams will play singles at Wimbledon after accepting a wild card invitation, the All England Club announced Sunday.The move comes after the 44-year-old Williams recently returned to competition in doubles after nearly four years away from professional tennis.And it means that Williams will play both singles and doubles at Wimbledon after already accepting a wild card for the doubles competition with older sister Venus.

“This is not a drill,” Wimbledon said on its social media accounts.Serena’s last singles match was a loss to Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round of the 2022 U.S.

Open. At the time, she said she didn’t want to use the word “retiring” and instead declared that she was “evolving” away from tennis.Serena has won 23 Grand Slam titles in singles, including seven at Wimbledon.

She’s also won 14 Grand Slams in doubles, all with Venus, and six of them at Wimbledon.Wimbledon starts in eight days.Serena won a doubles match with partner Victoria Mboko at Queen’s Club last week but then the pair had to withdraw after Mboko injured her knee in a singles match.

In another doubles match at the Berlin Open on Tuesday, Serena and partner Karolina Muchova were beaten by Giuliana Olmos and Erin Routliffe.___AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis