Serena Williams looks to win Wimbledon after given wild card entry

• Serena will look to win Wimbledon this year.
• She has not played in Wimbledon since last year
• She is the only woman to defend her championship in 2016.

Serena Williams, who is ranked 1,204th in the world and has not played a competitive singles match in the past year, will enter Wimbledon seeking her greatest victory.

The seven-time All England Club champion will also be seeking a record-tying 24th Grand Slam championship.

Never before have the odds been so stacked against a player to become the first unseeded woman to win Wimbledon.

Read more: Serena Williams handed singles wildcard for Wimbledon

With her 41st birthday just three months away, Williams has not competed in a singles match on tour since losing to Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the first round of Wimbledon in 2021.

“I hope I don’t become the last player to have beaten her at Wimbledon,” Sasnovich told AFP at the French Open last month.

“She is a great champion and I want to see her back.”

Sasnovich can’t compete at Wimbledon because of the ban on Russian and Belarusian players, but Williams is back.

Since winning her eighth Australian Open in 2017 while pregnant, the American great has remained frustratingly stranded on 23 Slams.

In 2018 and 2019, she placed second at Wimbledon and the US Open, while Margaret Court’s record of 24 majors remained unmatched.

‘Doubt I’d return? Absolutely’

“Did I ever doubt I would return? Absolutely, for sure. I would be dishonest if I said it wasn’t and now my body feels great,” Williams stated on Tuesday after a successful doubles return in Eastbourne.

“It felt good but I always try to stay semi-fit because you never know when you are going to play Wimbledon.”

Read more: Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal to lead title chase at all-new Wimbledon

Williams is the only woman in 2016 to successfully defend her Wimbledon championship.

When she played her first Wimbledon in 1998, current world number one Iga Swiatek hadn’t even been born yet.