London, UK - Tennis great Serena Williams, who retired in 2022, has been awarded a wildcard for the Wimbledon grass court championships starting in a week.

Organizers released their initial list of wildcards on Sunday, with Williams, a seven-time champion at the All England Club, one of eight players awarded a place in the ladies' singles event.

A social media post by the official Wimbledon Championships said: "This is not a drill" with a picture of Williams standing on a grass court captioned "Serena returns".

"@serenawilliams will compete in the 2026 ladies' singles at #Wimbledon as a wild card," read the post.

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The 44-year-old former world number one and 23-time Grand Slam singles champion has not played a singles match since the 2022 US Open.

However, she did make one appearance at Queen's last week alongside Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko.

They knocked out the third seeds, Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe, before an injury to Mboko ended their participation without playing another match.

Williams and Czech doubles partner Karolina Muchova then lost in their first match at the Berlin Open this week, hours after the American great and her sister Venus Williams were awarded a wildcard to play in the Wimbledon doubles event.

They are six-time doubles winners at Wimbledon, last triumphing there a decade ago.