Serena Williams deserves her place at Wimbledon

To launch a comeback at 44, nearly four years after her most recent singles match, feels ambitious to say the least, and in some eyes foolish.

Tennis commentator Craig Shapiro pulled no punches and called the comeback a “stunt”, likening it to Logan Paul beating up 58-year-old boxer Mike Tyson.

Writer Sebastian Gente said, “It's unworthy of the champion she was,” adding that the comeback was possibly out of “pride,” or “worse, out of boredom”.

The concerns are valid. The oldest ever female champion at SW19 was Charlotte Cooper Sterry - and that was in 1901 when she was 37. Roger Federer was 35 when he became the oldest ever men’s champion in 2017.

Even the great Martina Navratilova could do no better than the second round when she played, aged 47, in 2004. Serena has not won a singles slam since 2017, has already had breaks due to pregnancy, has two daughters, and announced in 2022 that she was evolving away from tennis.

Having already made comebacks after giving birth, she knows how hard it is to return to the top of elite sport, and having seen her older sister Venus re-enter singles draws in recent times, knows that success is far from guaranteed.

Greg Rusedski has raised a question about how well she will be able to handle long and intense rallies on the baseline. Lindsey Davenport mentioned how hard it would be for an athlete to bend and stretch to the lower position that the lower bounce of a grass court demands.

Why would the greatest women’s player of modern times put it all on the line once more? Well, Serena is one grand slam shy of Margaret Court’s record of 24 - which is also the figure Novak Djokovic has amassed over his career to date.

A miraculous win at both Wimbledon and the US Open would put her clear. She does not need the all-time record to secure her status as a legend, but would she regret not giving it one more shot while she was still physically capable, when she is sat by a poo in twenty years?

Her decision to play singles as well as doubles suggests that she is not coming back just for the love of tennis. I admit, my initial reaction to any comeback of a sports legend is a sadness that they were apparently unable to find fulfillment after calling it a day.

But I can’t imagine this is a decision she took lightly and would not have been made without the approval of her family.

Whatever else she wants to achieve in her life, at this point, any sporting ambitions will need to take priority.

Shapiro is wrong to call it a “stunt”. That word is better suited to the US Open bringing unqualified singles players into its mixed doubles tournament to draw publicity. That is a stunt.

The greatest female tennis player launching a comeback is a story. At Queen’s, Serena fired 120mph serves down the tee in her doubles run, and had the reflexes to dominate at the net. It was her much younger partner Victoria Mboko’s injury that forced the pair to pull out after one win, and not the 44-year-old’s loss of fitness.

It’s unlikely she will win Wimbledon this year, but the tournament owes it to her to give her this wildcard entry for one more go if she thinks she is in with a chance. Win or lose, her presence will elevate the tournament.

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William Mata is a writer and SEO Editor for LBC

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