Serena Williams has learned her possible path to Wimbledon glory.
The tennis star stepped away from women’s singles after the 2022 US Open, but is making her return on the grass courts of the All England Club next week.
Her first-round matchup is against 53rd-ranked Maya Joint, a 20-year-old Australian.
Joint competed in the French Open and lost in the first round to No. 23 Anastasia Potapova. She also participated in last year’s Wimbledon, losing in the first round.
If Williams wins, her matches will only get harder as she would likely have to face No. 29 Filipino Alexandra Eala. In her potential Round 3 matchup, she would potentially play defending Wimbledon women’s singles champion Iga Swiatek.
In addition to competing in women’s singles, Serena will team up with her sister Venus for the doubles competition.
Williams returned to tennis, competing in doubles at the Queen’s Club HSBC Championships on June 9, partnering Canadian Victoria Mboko. They won their opening match before Mboko suffered a devastating injury in singles, forcing the duo to withdraw from the event.
But this will be the first time Williams has played singles since 2022. In that U.S. Open, she reached the third round before losing in three sets to Ajla Tomljanović.
Williams stepped away from tennis to spend time with her family. She has two daughters, Olympia, 8, and Adira, 2, with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.
Now, both daughters have gotten to see their mom return to the game she loved, even if they were not always focused on it.
“Adira wanted to go to the toy store, and Olympia wanted to know what was for dinner,” Williams told the Associated Press.
Retired tennis pro Christopher Eubanks watched Williams return to the court at Queen’s Club and was impressed by her play.
“A lot of times that can be a very difficult thing to get back after having an extended time off and her serve looked great,” Eubanks said. “She had one serve up near 120 mph. And the purity with which the ball comes off of her strings off the ground on both the forehand and the backhand side looks as dialed in as I’ve seen.
Wimbledon begins on Monday with Williams’ match with Joint on Tuesday.
