Serena Williams might be plotting a quiet return four years after unofficial farewell

Four years after saying an unofficial goodbye to tennis, Serena Williams could be close to making a comeback.

The BBC reports the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion is in discussions to play doubles at the Queen’s Club tournament in London next month.

Williams would need a wild-card entry, but there are two available for the WTA 500 event that begins June 8. The Served podcast, hosted by former men’s No. 1 Andy Roddick, claimed Williams would pair with 19-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko at the grass-court tournament.

Williams, 44, hasn’t played a competitive event since losing to Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round of the 2022 U.S. Open. However, she is eligible to compete again after rejoining the sport’s drug testing pool and reaching the mandatory six-month mark back in February.

After taking time off to focus on family life, Williams has recently returned to strenuous physical training, losing a total of 31 pounds in eight months with the help of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs.

When she made an appearance on NBC’s TODAY show in January, she didn’t completely shut down the idea of a return.

When pressed by Savannah Guthrie about entering the drug protocol, she sidestepped the question.

“Did I re-enter?” Williams said. “I didn’t know if I was out. Listen, I can’t discuss this.”

Older sister Venus Williams has also played intermittently on the WTA Tour during the past several years, reaching the U.S. Open quarterfinals in doubles last year and playing in seven tournaments in 2026.

The Queen’s Club event is widely recognized as a grass-court tune-up for Wimbledon – which begins three weeks later. For reference, Martina Navratilova is the oldest woman to win a singles match at a Grand Slam event when she did so at Wimbledon in 2004 at the age of 47.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Serena Williams considering return at Queen’s Club in doubles draw