All England Club Awards Final Women's Singles Wildcard to Serena Williams for 2026 Wimbledon

Serena Williams will compete in the ladies' singles draw at the 2026 Wimbledon Championships after the All England Club awarded her a wild-card entry on Sunday evening. The 44-year-old last played singles at Wimbledon in 2022, when she lost in the first round to Harmony Tan.

U.S. Open to Ajla Tomljanovic. Williams already held a doubles wild card alongside her sister Venus, 46. The pair will open their doubles campaign on either 2 July or 3 July and have won six Wimbledon doubles titles together, the last in 2016.

The All England Club had previously confirmed seven of the eight women's singles wild cards before issuing the final spot to Williams. The tournament begins on 29 June. Williams returned to professional tennis earlier this month at the Queen's Club HSBC Championships in London, where she and Victoria Mboko defeated Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe in the first round before Mboko withdrew with a left knee injury.

She then partnered Karolina Muchova at the Berlin Open and lost in the first round to Giuliana Olmos and Erin Routliffe. "I better get to practice," Williams said when asked about a possible singles wild card during the Berlin event. She added that she was satisfied with her level after the Berlin match.

Williams has trained on the All England Club grass courts this week. Williams first appeared at Wimbledon in 1998 and won her first singles title there in 2002, defeating Venus in the final. She went on to claim six additional Wimbledon singles titles in 2003, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2016.

She has spent 319 weeks as WTA world number one and won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles, all with Venus.