After almost a year away from professional tennis Serena Williams will once again return to the Tour next week at the Rothesay International in Eastbourne.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion has been absent from the sport ever since retiring from her first round match at Wimbledon last year when she injured her ankle. Now at the age of 40 the American is set to stage another comeback on the grass with the help of her team, which includes tennis coach Eric Hechtman who is known for his work with her sister Venus. Earlier this year Williams ended her longtime collaboration with Patrick Mouratoglou who is now coaching Simona Halep.
Williams is set to pair up with Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur to play in the Eastbourne doubles tournament next week. The American is a former world No.1 doubles player and has won 14 major titles alongside Venus.
“I am excited to return to the Rothesay International tournament in England and to be back on the grass – a surface that has been so good to me throughout my career,” Williams said in a statement.
“Eastbourne has a unique charm that you don’t see anywhere else on Tour and I’m looking forward to playing in front of the fans again.”
It will be only the third time Williams has played at Eastbourne after 1998 when she reached the quarter-finals before losing to Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario and 2011 when she fell in the second round to Vera Zvonareva.
The tournament serves as a warm-up for Williams ahead of Wimbledon where she has received a main draw wild card to play in this year’s tournament. It will be her 21st appearance at the All England Club where she has won the title seven times in her career. On the women’s Tour only Martina Navratilova has won Wimbledon more times in the Open Era.
Williams is yet to make any public comment about her upcoming campaign on the grass. Although on Tuesday she did upload an Instagram post with the comment ‘SW and SW19. It’s a date. 2022 See you there.’
So far in her career Williams has won 73 WTA titles and has spaent 319 weeks as world No.1. Her prize money earnings of $94.5M is twice more than anybody else in the history of women’s professional tennis.
