Serena Williams, 44, announces return to professional tennis

Serena Williams is returning to professional tennis at the age of 44 after nearly four years away from the sport.

The 23-time grand slam singles champion has accepted a wildcard invitation to play doubles at the upcoming Queen's Club grass-court tournament in London, the WTA Tour has announced.

Williams also made a sponsored post with Nike on social media with the caption: "Guess everybody heard the news."

The post had a video with her phone ringing, during which she said: "I got to change my number."

The Queen's Club tournament starts next Monday and the WTA has said Williams will play "with a partner to be announced in due course".

A return on grass will raise speculation that Williams also plans to compete at Wimbledon, which starts June 28. She has won seven singles titles at the All England Club.

"Queen's Club feels like the perfect place to begin this next chapter," Williams said in a statement.

"Grass has given me some of the most meaningful moments of my career and I'm excited to be back competing on one of the sport's most iconic stages."

Williams has not competed since bidding farewell at the 2022 US Open but at the time, Williams said she did not want to use the word "retiring" and instead declared that she was "evolving" away from tennis.

"Serena brought the game to another level and it is incredible for the sport that she's pushing the boundaries and coming back," said Martina Navratilova, the previous oldest former world number one to launch a comeback, at 43 years and 10 months.

Williams, who has also won 14 major doubles titles, became eligible to compete in February after re-registering with tennis's mandatory anti-doping program six months earlier.

Four-time major champion Naomi Osaka , who beat Williams in the 2018 US Open final for her first major title, was excited at the prospect.

"It will bring people to watch tennis," Osaka said at the French Open.

"I'm going to be tuned in to the first match, for sure. I think a lot of people are. Everyone knows Serena and Venus were my role models growing up, so it's going to be cool to see her on the grounds again."

Williams recently posted a video on Instagram showing herself training on a hard court with her daughter: "Rumor has it…I got a new trainer," Williams said in the post.

Williams's second daughter was born in 2023.

Williams's older sister, Venus, is still playing occasionally at 45.

"One of my biggest regrets was not being able to play her," defending French Open champion Coco Gauff said in Paris.

"It would be cool for this sport to have a legend back playing."

John McEnroe said Williams was not "coming back not to win" and suggested she could play Wimbledon.

"She's not getting any younger but she's Serena Williams so I bet you she would tell me about wanting to win the whole damn thing," McEnroe said in Paris.

McEnroe was 47 when he returned after 12 years of retirement and won a tour-level doubles tournament with partner Jonas Björkman.

"Physically I still had it for doubles, so she definitely could still have it for doubles, there's no question about that. She could win anything [in doubles]," McEnroe said.

"The singles is more difficult, so we'll have to wait and see what she decides to do, maybe she's waiting to the[US] Open. I'm not really sure what the plan is. She hasn't called me to tell me the plan."

A women's tournament rejoined the men's competition at Queen's last year after an absence of more than 50 years, meaning Williams will be making her debut at the historic grass-court tournament.

"Women's tennis made a historic return to the Queen's Club last year, and now we have an icon of the game stepping back on to court at this prestigious venue," Queen's tournament director Laura Robson said.

"It's very exciting for the tournament and the fans."