Serena back in singles draws? “I probably will play again, I have to”
Serena Williams is at the US Open in doubles only, and she has explained why: an injury at Wimbledon, and an unwillingness to take a wild card from someone who could use it. Asked whether she is ruling out singles for good, the six-time champion here was unambiguous: “I probably will play again. I have to.”
Serena Williams, 2026 | © Zuma / PsNewz
After nos taking the last wild card remaining in the women’s draw at the US Open, Serena Williams has left the door to singles open, telling TV show Good Morning America that she expects to return to individual competition after skipping this year’s US Open with an injury.
“Are you ruling out playing singles in the future?” she was asked. “No,” she said. “I probably will play again. I have to. But after some of those returns, I think I need to play.”
Told that many people hope to see her at a Grand Slam again, she went further. “Yeah, I think I will. But this isn’t something permanent, obviously.”
The 44-year-old, a six-time champion in singles at this tournament and a 23-time Grand Slam winner, is at Flushing Meadows this fortnight in the women’s doubles alongside her sister Venus, and played the mixed doubles event last week with Carlos Alcaraz. She did not enter the singles, and the final women’s wild card went to Sofia Kenin.
Why she stayed out of the singles draw
Williams gave the reason for that decision publicly for the first time, and it was not only about her fitness.
“I injured myself at Wimbledon and I just didn’t have time to recover, unfortunately,” she said. “And I just didn’t want to take any opportunities away from someone in terms of getting a wild card if I wasn’t able to compete at a way that I knew I could.”
Asked what she hopes to show her daughters by continuing to compete, she framed it as an argument about age. “I hope to show them that anything is possible,” Williams said. “You can do anything at any age, as long as you work hard and put some effort and dedication behind it.”
A doubles entry her daughter arranged
The women’s doubles pairing with Venus, she said, was not her own idea. Williams described her eight-year-old daughter Olympia telling her to enter with her aunt, and doing so in terms that ended the discussion.
“She said it so clear and so calm,” Williams said. “My mom, she doesn’t really talk a lot, but when she does talk, it’s like you listen. And I was like, okay. And she said, that’s it. You just need to play with her.”
The mixed doubles partnership with Alcaraz came together by text message, after Williams congratulated him on a title earlier in the season. “He’s like, you know what, you need to come to New York and we’ll play mix together,” she said. “And I was like, no chance.” She played it anyway, and was clocked serving at 121 mph.
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