The possibility had been the talk of tennis since Serena Williams announced nearly three weeks ago that she would return to professional competition after nearly four years away from the sport.
Even so, the official confirmation still came as a shock.
In a brief announcement Sunday, the All England Club revealed that the 23-time Grand Slam champion had been awarded the final women's singles wild card for Wimbledon, just eight days before the tournament begins.
“Serena Williams (USA) receives the final ladies’ singles wild card,” the statement read.
At 44, Williams is set to compete in both singles and doubles at Wimbledon. She had already accepted a wild card into the doubles draw, where she will partner with her older sister, Venus Williams.
“This is not a drill,” Wimbledon said on its social media accounts Sunday.
The WTA Tour commented: “Name a more iconic return ... we’ll wait.”
Wimbledon held open the eighth and final women's singles wild-card spot until Williams made up her mind. As recently as this week, after losing a doubles match in Berlin, she appeared uncertain about the decision.
“Oh my gosh, there are some left?” she replied when told there was still a wild-card spot available.
Wild cards are special invitations handed out by tournament organizers that allow former champions and others access to the main draw without meeting the usual entry requirements. But Williams then questioned whether she was ready.
“Do you think I’m ready for singles?” she asked a reporter before turning to doubles partner Karolina Muchova for her opinion.
“I think I would be interested in it,” the Czech player responded.
“That’s the question of the hour, right?” Williams said. “I don’t know. I don’t know. I wonder why there’s ... I don’t know.”
Now that Williams has made up her mind, the biggest remaining question is how she will physically handle singles competition after such a long absence.
Williams' most recent singles match was a loss to Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round of the 2022 U.S. Open. At the time, she said she did not want to use the word “retiring” and instead declared that she was “evolving” away from tennis. Her second daughter was born in 2023.
“Just finished a mean game of duck duck goose,” Williams wrote on X after the wild-card announcement.
Of Williams' 23 Grand Slam singles titles, seven came at Wimbledon: 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2016. She also won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles, all with Venus, including six at Wimbledon.
Williams also swept the singles and doubles titles with Venus at the 2012 London Olympics, when the tennis competition was held on the grass courts of the All England Club.
In her most recent Wimbledon appearance in 2022, Williams lost in the first round to then-No. 115 Harmony Tan in her first match since being forced to retire less than a set into her opening-round contest at the All England Club the previous year because of an injury.
Williams won a doubles match with partner Victoria Mboko at Queen’s Club last week, but the pair later withdrew after Mboko injured her knee in a singles match.
In another doubles match at the Berlin Open on Tuesday, Williams and Muchova lost to Giuliana Olmos and Erin Routliffe.
As of Sunday, Williams had not entered the singles draw of any grass-court warmup tournament before Wimbledon.
She will learn her first-round opponent Friday when the Wimbledon singles draws are held.
While Williams is No. 593 in the doubles rankings following her victory last week, she does not have a singles ranking after such a lengthy absence.
Iga Swiatek is the defending Wimbledon champion, while Aryna Sabalenka is ranked No. 1.
Because Williams is unranked, she could potentially face Swiatek, Sabalenka or another top-ranked player in the opening rounds.
