Serena Williams' tennis comeback: She is eligible to compete, so which tournament may she play?
Serena Williams, widely regarded as the greatest women's tennis player of all time, is now eligible to compete on the WTA Tour and at Grand Slams for the first time in nearly four years. The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has listed Williams, 44, on its roster of reinstated tennis players, with an eligibility date of February 22, 2026.
Williams initially denied a return to the sport last year after appearing in a tennis anti-doping pool, but has since softened her position, refusing to rule out a tennis comeback during an interview with "Today" in January. The question now is: which tournaments could Williams play in? Would she partner with her sister Venus, the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion with whom she won 14 major doubles titles and three Olympic golds, who has also recently returned? And what has she had to do to make a tennis return possible?
The main obstacle is reentering the anti-doping pool for six months, which Williams will have done by February 22. She will then need to remain in the pool, and give her daily whereabouts to the ITIA. Williams has practiced with Alycia Parks, a fellow American player, and was looking to return as early as last year's U.S. Open, according to a report in Bounces. At that time, she had not completed the six months in the anti-doping testing pool required by the ITIA for returning players.
Williams has also spoken about the benefit of taking GLP-1 weight-loss drugs since she retired from tennis, and in a series of interviews last summer said that she felt joint stress caused by her weight had prevented her from winning as many Grand Slam titles as she might have done. She has practiced regularly at her home in Florida, and world No. 77 Parks told Tennis Majors on Saturday that she had recently practiced with her. Parks added: "She is in great shape. So I think she would kill it on tour."
Williams has the opportunity to make yet more history if she returns to the sport. Her last Grand Slam singles title came at the 2017 Australian Open, where she beat her sister Venus, in the final. The chance to go for a 15th Grand Slam title together, with a combined age of 99, would be hugely compelling. However, there's no real precedent for a player in their mid-40s coming back to the tour and making a big impact.
Williams has proven herself the master of the comeback before — returning to the sport after serious injury to win Slams previously, and reaching four major finals after giving birth in September 2017, during which she had a pulmonary embolism. She always left the door open for a return — speaking of "evolving away" from tennis rather than retiring when announcing her farewell in 2022 — and with her children a little older, at 8 and 3, she may see this as the right moment and last opportunity.
The BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., gets underway March 4, followed by the Miami Open a couple of weeks later. Both events are WTA 1000s, the rung below the Grand Slams. The next Grand Slam is the French Open, which begins May 24. Williams will have to enter tournaments with wild cards, as there is no protected ranking for players who have left the sport, and so her participation will be at the discretion of the tournaments she wishes to enter.
Given her status in the game, she will have absolutely no issue getting a wild card wherever she wants. And smaller tournaments will likely be queuing up to offer her hefty appearance fees to play at their events. Williams has also spoken about the benefits of taking GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, and in a series of interviews last summer said that she felt joint stress caused by her weight had prevented her from winning as many Grand Slam titles as she might have done.
GLP-1s were not included on the World Anti Doping Agency’s (WADA) 2026 list of prohibited substances. They are part of WADA’s "monitoring program," however, meaning the situation could change as more information about the drugs and their effects comes to light.
Williams played her final match in September 2022 — a third-round defeat to Ajla Tomljanović at the U.S. Open, having beaten Danka Kovinić and then the No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit in the first couple of rounds. It brought to an end a glittering career that took in 23 singles Grand Slams (the most of any woman in tennis’ professional Open Era), plus 14 in doubles and two in mixed. Overall, Williams won 73 singles titles and picked up just under $95 million dollars in a career that made her one of the biggest icons in the history of professional sport.
