{"id":5409,"date":"2026-06-27T20:04:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T20:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=5409"},"modified":"2026-06-27T20:04:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T20:04:01","slug":"star-power-serena-williams-commands-spotlight-ahead-of-her-wimbledon-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=5409","title":{"rendered":"Star power: Serena Williams commands spotlight ahead of her Wimbledon return"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
Serena Williams of the U.S. reacts during a practice session, ahead of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, in London, Saturday June 27, 2026. (John Walton\/PA via AP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

LONDON \u2014 Iga Swiatek is the defending champion. Aryna Sabalenka is the No. 1 women\u2019s singles player.<\/p>

Read more Pittsburgh is twin city after Penguins draft Markus Ruck in 2nd round after Liam in 1st<\/a><\/p>\n

Serena Williams is the star, though, at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

The 44-year-old Williams\u2019 presence has been emanating throughout SW19 \u2014 the famous post code of Wimbledon \u2014 as she prepares to play her first singles match at the event in four years<\/a> Tuesday when she faces No. 53 Maya Joint in the first round.<\/p>\n

Mirra Andreeva, who just won the French Open<\/a> , was basically crossing her fingers when the Wimbledon draw was announced.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was watching like this because I don\u2019t think anyone in the draw would have wanted to play against Serena,\u201d the smiling Russian teenager said Saturday. \u201cI\u2019m going to speak for myself. I wouldn\u2019t want to play against Serena. I would be just very nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams had been away from the sport since her farewell at the 2022 U.S. Open but she accepted a wild-card entry to play women\u2019s doubles with her sister Venus, who is 46. And then she accepted another to play singles.<\/p>\n

Williams\u2019 most-recent appearance at Wimbledon was in 2022 when she lost in the opening round<\/a> to Harmony Tan, who was then-ranked 115th. The American great walked away from tennis \u2014 she described it as \u201cevolving\u201d away \u2014 after losing in the third round<\/a> to Ajla Tomljanovic at Flushing Meadows. Her second daughter<\/a> was born in 2023.<\/p>\n

Williams, a seven-time Wimbledon singles title winner, could meet Swiatek in the third round.<\/p>\n

Serena Williams officially returned to tennis earlier this month in a doubles match with 19-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko<\/a> at the Queen\u2019s Club grass-court tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnexpectedly, before her first match she asked me did I have any motivational quotes I use for myself,\u201d Venus Williams said Saturday. \u201cI told her what I was using at the time. I don\u2019t know if that helped or not. She did win the match.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Williams sisters will play their first-round doubles match against Colombia\u2019s Camila Osorio and Solana Sierra of Argentina.<\/p>

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Serena and Venus have won 14 Grand Slam titles together in doubles, including six at Wimbledon. Their first two doubles titles at the All England Club, in 2000 and 2002, came as wild cards.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us it was about the titles, we wanted the Grand Slam titles. We just wanted to bring them home,\u201d Venus said. \u201cWe did pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic calls Serena Williams\u2019 tennis comeback \u201cinspirational\u201d and \u201cepic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I told her,\u201d Djokovic said Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see her in the gym more than I have, I think, seen her when she was at her prime,\u201d Djokovic, a 24-time major champion, said of Williams, a 23-time major winner in singles. \u201cIt tells me that she really wants this to work out the best way possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Djokovic added: \u201cI always admired her career, her journey, her story. Of course, Venus\u2019, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coco Gauff, the No. 7 seed at Wimbledon, said Serena and Venus were the \u201cbiggest\u201d inspiration on her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played the sport because of them, believed that I could do things because of them. I look up to them a lot,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka added: \u201cIt\u2019s amazing what she\u2019s doing. Also it\u2019s Serena Williams, everyone was talking about that. She\u2019s bringing more eyes on tennis. It\u2019s a good thing for tennis. I\u2019m really excited to see her play.\u201d<\/p>

Read more Blues acquire Brandon Carlo from the Maple Leafs in a trade at the NHL draft<\/a><\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iga Swiatek is the defending champion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nStar power: Serena Williams commands spotlight ahead of her Wimbledon return - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=5409\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Star power: Serena Williams commands spotlight ahead of her Wimbledon return - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Iga Swiatek is the defending champion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=5409\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-27T20:04:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/d6f252c830f8f95d9ca1ac3c4a9706e5-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1706\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5409#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5409\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"Star power: Serena Williams commands spotlight ahead of her Wimbledon return\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-27T20:04:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5409\"},\"wordCount\":655,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5409#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/0b3fa406aa042fa03b1986f0c8aec443-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5409#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5409\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5409\",\"name\":\"Star power: Serena Williams commands spotlight ahead of her Wimbledon return - 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