Serena Williams Makes Move to Return to Tennis Competition for First Time in 3 Years

Serena Williams may be eyeing a return to the court.

The 44-year-old tennis superstar reportedly requested to reenter the sport’s International Registered Testing Pool after reaching out to the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), according to a report from The Athletic on Tuesday, Dec. 2.

Williams, who carefully tip-toed around the word “retirement” and instead said she was “evolving away” from tennis in 2022, “notified us that she wants to be reinstated into the testing pool,” said Adrian Bassett, an ITIA spokesperson, in a statement to The Athletic on Tuesday.

According to the outlet, Williams’ name appears on a list of players in the pool, reportedly updated on Oct. 6.

Bassett told the outlet he does “not know if this means she is coming back,” or if Williams is “just giving herself the option” to return to tennis. “All I can say is she’s back in the pool and therefore subject to whereabouts,” Bassett said, per The Athletic.

A player’s name being on the list does not mean they are active, but the addition of Williams’ name in the pool allows her to compete, if she chooses to do so. According to The Athletic, players who reenter must be in the pool for six months before they can compete in a tournament.

In October 2022, Williams said she was “not retired” and that “the chances of me returning are very high,” The San Francisco Standard reported at the time. “You can come to my house and [see], I have a court.”

Before competing in the US Open in August 2022, Williams penned an essay for Vogue in which she said she “never liked the word retirement” while announcing her plan to step away from her nearly 27-year-long professional tennis career following the US Open.

“It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me,” Williams continued in her essay. “I’ve been thinking of this as a transition, but I want to be sensitive about how I use that word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people. Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution.”

The mother of two said, “I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me.”

When she appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that September, the host asked if she was “pulling a Tom Brady,” referencing the quarterback’s brief retirement before returning to the NFL for another season.

Williams, responded, “You know what? Tom Brady started an amazing trend.”