\n<\/p>\n
Serena Williams Nearly Missed Wimbledon Comeback<\/strong><\/p>\n Serena Williams recently shared that she almost declined the chance to return to singles at Wimbledon, but ultimately realized it was an opportunity she couldn’t miss. The seven-time champion revealed she had to encourage herself to accept the final wildcard offered by the All England Club for this year\u2019s tournament.<\/p>\n At 44 years old, Williams had already committed to playing doubles with her sister, Venus Williams. Now, she\u2019s set to make her much-anticipated singles return for the first time since 2022. Ahead of her initial match against Australia\u2019s Maya Joint, Serena disclosed that she spent several days weighing her decision.<\/p>\n “I thought I should really take this opportunity. Who knows if I’ll ever make it here again? This could be it,” Williams told the press. <\/p>\n She reflected on her internal dialogue: “What\u2019s wrong with me? Are you nuts? You really should do this.”<\/p>\n Williams expressed the excitement of being able to showcase her skills again, saying, “People live to be athletes. I have this great opportunity to show what I do best. So, I decided it was pretty cool to take part.”<\/p>\n Despite her determination, she admitted the decision wasn\u2019t easy and she felt uncertain until the last moment. “I had until Monday to decide. I think it was like Sunday, and I just wasn\u2019t sure up until then,” she said.<\/p>\n The 23-time Grand Slam winner will step onto Centre Court on Tuesday night for her match with 20-year-old Maya Joint, marking her first singles appearance at Wimbledon since her first-round loss to Harmony Tan in 2022.<\/p>\n After stepping back from professional tennis following the 2022 US Open, Williams described her choice as “evolving” away from the sport rather than a full retirement. Earlier this month, she made her return by competing in doubles, first at Queen\u2019s Club and then in Berlin.<\/p>\n Her return gained momentum when Wimbledon offered her a wildcard for doubles with Venus, followed by the final singles wildcard just days later. Despite her impressive history, owning seven Wimbledon singles titles and 23 Grand Slam titles overall, Williams mentioned that she\u2019s viewing this comeback differently from the past.<\/p>\n She acknowledged that her expectations have changed due to her time away from the game and the special circumstances surrounding this comeback.<\/p>\n Facing one of the youngest players in the tournament, Maya Joint, Williams confirmed she has studied her opponent\u2019s game. “Yeah, I know her. I\u2019ve watched some of her videos,” she said with a smile, adding, “I\u2019m sure she knows my game too.”<\/p>\n Whether this will be Serena\u2019s final appearance at Wimbledon or the start of a new chapter remains to be seen, but accepting the wildcard was a way for her to avoid the regret of missing out on this unique chance.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Serena Williams Nearly Missed Wimbledon Comeback Serena Williams recently shared that she almost declined the chance to return to singles at Wimbledon, but ultimately realized it was an opportunity she couldn’t miss. The seven-time champion revealed she had to encourage herself to accept the final wildcard offered by the All England Club for this year\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[21182,43081,47341,46425,46424,46423,29726,47342],"class_list":["post-35919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-serena-williams","tag-serena-williams-comeback","tag-serena-williams-maya-joint","tag-serena-williams-singles-return","tag-serena-williams-wildcard","tag-serena-williams-wimbledon","tag-wimbledon-2026","tag-wimbledon-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}