Serena Williams preparing for tennis comeback — three years after retirement

Serena Williams appears to be plotting her return to the court.

The 23-time Grand Slam champion “has applied for reinstatement to tennis and has been added back into the [drug] testing pool,” Bounces reported Tuesday — three years after she called it a career.

Though Williams, 44, is still listed on the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s list of retired players as of Tuesday, Bounce noted in its report how “names only appear on that ITIA reinstatements list once their six months back on the testing pool have been completed, not when the six months are still ongoing.”

Her name also appeared on a document in October indicating the players in the ITIA’s registered testing pool, which, by estimation, would put Williams “on track to be eligible to return again by April 2026 at the latest,” per Bounces.

Williams played her final match in September 2022 at the U.S. Open, falling to Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round.

A return has apparently been on her mind, as Bounce reported Williams “had first sought reinstatement this past August, weeks before this year’s U.S. Open,” where older sister Venus Williams reached the women’s doubles quarterfinal with partner Leylah Fernandez.

Williams, who last won a Grand Slam in 2017 at the Australian Open, spoke to Vogue about her decision to “evolve away from tennis” ahead of the 2022 U.S. Open.

“I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me,” Williams wrote at the time. “A few years ago I quietly started Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm. Soon after that, I started a family. I want to grow that family.”

Married to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, Williams became a mom to daughters Olympia and Adira in 2017 and 2023, respectively.

The couple celebrated their seventh wedding anniversary in November.