The tennis star hasn't played in any major tennis tournaments since she injured herself in 2021's Wimbledon.
Serena Williams is getting back to the tennis courts! It's been almost a year since the 40-year-old tennis champion last competed in a major tennis tournament -- she pulled out of 2021's Wimbledon after injuring her right leg during her match against Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus.
The injury followed Williams' announcement that she would not compete at the Tokyo Olympics, which were held in July and August. Then in December, the Twitter account for the Australian Open shared a statement from Williams announcing her decision to withdraw from the January event on medical advice.
Now, the four-time Olympic gold medalist is hinting to fans that she’ll be back at Wimbledon this year to compete in the major tournament!
On Tuesday, Williams posted a photo of her sneaker-clad feet, writing, "SW and SW19. It's a date. 2022 See you there. Let’s Go #renasarmy."
"SW" refers to the tennis pro's initials while "SW19" indicates the postcode of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, which is where Wimbledon is played. The tennis tournament begins on June 27.
The post was met with encouragement from friends and fans, and William's biggest fan -- her husband Alexis Ohanian. The internet entrepreneur commented on the post with several clapping hands emojis and wrote, "LFG!"
Williams is a seven-time Wimbledon singles winner and a 23-time Grand Slam singles champion. And while fans haven't seen her on the professional courts in a year, she has shown off the growing skills of her 4-year-old daughter, Olympia Ohanian, on her social media accounts.
In April, Williams shared a video of her and her “mini” taking each other on while on the tennis court. "Sometimes it be ya own mini," Williams captioned the post.
In the video, Williams gears up to serve as the camera pans to Olympia. “Really, this is nuts,” the athlete says before hitting the ball, while Olympia swings and misses. Although she didn’t have the support of her opponent, Olympia’s dad was in the comments with extra support.
"I refuse to believe @olympiaohanian missed that,” Ohanian wrote.
But during a May appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, Williams admitted that Olympia won't be getting tennis lessons from her, leaving that to the toddler's private tennis instructor. "I don’t have the patience to teach tennis," she said. "I don’t really like to play with people who don’t know how to play tennis well. It drives me nuts."
Good thing for Serena, her daughter’s focus isn’t 100 percent on the game.
“Her ambition is playing princess games,” the King Richard producer says. “She loves princess games and the more we can play anything with princesses that’s her whole life."
RELATED CONTENT
