Serena Williams Eyes Return to Singles Competition

Serena Williams is not done yet. Not with the sport, not with singles, and certainly not with the idea that, at 44, she can still bend tennis to her will.

Speaking on ABC’s "Good Morning America" on Monday, Aug. 31, the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion said she "probably will" return to singles competition as she continues a comeback that has already taken her back onto some of the sport’s biggest stages.

Her motivation this time is different, sharper, more personal. It’s not about records or rankings. It’s about Olympia and Adira.

Her daughters are watching.

Williams said her return has been driven by a desire to show them that "anything is possible," a message that carries more weight coming from a player who has already rewritten what dominance in the women’s game looks like.

The road back has not been smooth. After making her official return earlier in the year in doubles, Williams stepped into singles again at Wimbledon, facing 20-year-old Maya Joint. The match went three sets, a reminder of her competitive instincts and also of the physical toll.

She left London with more than just a loss.

"I injured myself at Wimbledon. And I just didn't have time to recover, unfortunately," Williams told interviewer Malika Andrews. She added that she refused to take a shortcut back into a major draw if she wasn’t ready.

"I just didn't want to take any opportunities away from someone in terms of getting a wild card if I wasn't able to compete at a way that I knew I could."

That line says as much about where she is mentally as any training video or practice report. Pride, yes. But also respect for the locker room she once ruled.

The injury has paused her singles push, not ended it. Asked what comes next, Williams left little doubt that she intends to walk back onto a court alone, racket in hand, with the scoreboard bearing only her name.

"I probably will play again. I have to," she said. "After some of those returns, I think I need to play at least once."

The competitor in her clearly saw enough in flashes—those returns, those reactions—to believe there is still a match out there that she needs to play, maybe one more statement to make.

In the meantime, New York has given her a different stage.

At this year’s US Open, Williams joined the revamped mixed doubles competition, partnering with Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz at his request. The pairing brought together two eras of the sport in one team: the most dominant champion of her generation and the man many see as the face of the next decade.

They won their opening match, a burst of nostalgia and novelty in one. Their run ended in the quarterfinals, where Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli knocked them out, but the sight of Williams back under the lights at Flushing Meadows, competing with the same intensity, carried its own significance.

Her story in New York this year doesn’t end there.

Serena still has unfinished business at the US Open alongside the person who has been next to her for almost every major chapter of her career: her sister Venus. The pair, who lost in their first match together since 2022 in Cincinnati earlier this month, received a wild card into the women’s doubles draw.

One more run. One more walk onto Arthur Ashe or Louis Armstrong together. One more chance to add another layer to a doubles legacy that has already spanned decades.

Their opening match comes later this week. The questions around Serena’s singles future can wait a little longer.

For now, the sport will get what it has always demanded from her: competition, drama, and the sense that, with Serena Williams back on court, anything still feels possible.