Serena in Singles

The seven-time Wimbledon champion took a last-minute wild card into women's singles; how will it go?

When I last spoke to Serena Williams, she was hemming and hawing over whether or not she wanted the last wild card into the Wimbledon women’s singles draw¹, which it had become apparent the tournament was reserving for her, if she decided she wanted it.

Here’s our exchange, again, from this week in Berlin:

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: There’s still one Wimbledon singles wild card that hasn’t been announced yet. Would you like it?

Serena Williams: Oh my gosh, there’s some left?

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: They’ve left one left, there’s one...

Serena Williams: I better get to practice. (giggles)

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: Yeah—would you be interested in that if it’s still available?

Serena Williams: Would you be interested if I took it?

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: I would be interested in you taking it for sure.

Serena Williams: Gosh, you think I’m ready for singles?

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: I think so. You look like you’ve been practicing [for it], looking like you have been moving a lot in practices—I’ve seen the side-to-side drills.

What do you think? It’s more important what you think, Serena.

Serena Williams: Oh, I think it’s important what you think.

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: OK. (laughs) I think you’d be ready.

Serena Williams: What do you think, Karolina?

Karolina Muchova: I think I would be interested in it, yeah.

Serena Williams: I need to get to work.

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: But, I mean, time is running out for this decision.

Serena Williams: Yeah, right?

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: So would you raise your hand for it?

Serena Williams: That’s the question of the hour, right? I don’t know. I don’t know. I wonder why there’s—I don’t know.

As much as Serena is often joking around, I do think her final answer—“I don’t know”—was an honest one. She wasn’t certain about this decision a few days ago. But because she’s Serena Williams, Wimbledon was willing to give a seven-time champion the maximum time to make up her mind.

Well, after a few more days of that wild card staying conspicuously unannounced, and a few days of Serena practicing on the grass of Aorangi, which is Wimbledon’s on-site practice facility, Serena landed on “Yes.”

Some time before late Sunday evening, she finally made her decision.

Now, how will this go? It’s very tough to say. Serena has won more majors than anyone in professional women’s tennis history, of course, but her last major trophy came more than nine years ago. I don’t think she’s going to win—or meaningfully contend—for this Wimbledon title.

Can she win her first round there? Definitely, but it will depend on the draw. Serena will be at the mercy of the chips during Friday morning’s draw ceremony, and could be drawn against any of the other 127 women in the field, including top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka or defending champion Iga Swiatek.

If Serena is pitted against one of the very best in women’s tennis, I think a win would be a significant surprise. But if she draws, say, one of the other non-Chwalinska wild cards—not a formidable group, largely, with six British women mostly ranked way outside the top 100—I think Serena would be a clear favorite to win a match.

Everything in between those two poles would be some shade of gray in between, which we can scrutinize once the draw comes out on Friday.

There had already been a lot of excitement over Venus and Serena entering the doubles—that wild card was announced about a week ago—but there’s no doubt singles is the main event in tennis. And I could never envisage Serena doing all the work it takes to come back—spending six months in the anti-doping testing pool—just to play doubles, even if being there with Venus was a big motivator.

While Serena had a nice send-off at the 2022 U.S. Open—playing especially well to beat second-seeded Anett Kontaveit before falling to Ajla Tomljanovic—her Wimbledon farewell was considerably less auspicious, losing to little-known Harmony Tan in the first round in a third-set tiebreak, in what was her first singles match in a full year. Jon Wertheim, for one, has reported this year that the Tan loss “really stuck in Serena’s craw.”

There’s, of course, no guarantee it will go better this time around. This time, her coat of rust is nearly four years thick, quadruple what it was when she faced Tan.

I know many Serena fans fear, particularly because of the slickness of the grass in the early rounds of Wimbledon, that this time could go worse by ending in some sort of injury, as Serena’s previously penultimate Wimbledon campaign did in 2021.

But given that she cited Lindsey Vonn as an inspiration, I don’t think Serena was going to be scared away by a possibly painful ending. Not trying could leave a more lasting pain.

And Serena, at 44 years old, doesn’t have that much of a plausible window left to add more chapters to a singles career. It was probably now or never. Add in what she said when she spoke more openly in Berlin—feeling “a lot of pressure” from family to return, and this was probably the only choice.

“I just felt: why not?” Serena said in Berlin. “At least a little bit. For a little. This isn’t, obviously, forever. This is not sustainable for me.”

And this, probably, will also be the only time it happens again.

Thanks for reading Bounces! -Ben

1. Wimbledon still calls it “Ladies’ Singles” but that is not the Bounces style guide.