All England Club Issues Wimbledon Doubles Wild Card to Sisters

The All England Club announced a doubles wild card invitation on Tuesday for the sisters to compete at Wimbledon, which begins in less than two weeks. The move comes after 44-year-old Serena recently returned to competition after nearly four years away from professional tennis. Venus, who has still been competing sporadically, turns 46 on Wednesday.

The sisters have won 14 Grand Slam titles together in doubles, including six at Wimbledon. Their first Wimbledon doubles title came in 2000 and their last in 2016. The sisters last played doubles together at the 2022 U.S. Open, where they lost their opening match.

That was the first time they had played doubles together in four and a half years. Serena won her first doubles match with a partner at Queen's Club in London last week. She and that partner later withdrew after the partner injured her knee in a singles match.

Wimbledon draws include a singles wild card for recent French Open finalist Maja Chwalinska. Six British women also received singles wild cards: Harriet Dart, Alicia Dudeney, Hannah Klugman, Mika Stojsavljevic, Katie Swan, and Mimi Xu. Men's singles wild cards went to Stan Wawrinka and Grigor Dimitrov along with four British players.

Wawrinka, a three-time Grand Slam champion, plans to retire at the end of the year. In men's doubles, a wild card went to the pairing of Alexander Bublik and Nick Kyrgios. Two more men's singles wild cards remain open.