Overview
- Wimbledon announced on Sunday that Serena Williams, 44, received the eighth and final women’s singles wildcard and will also play doubles with her sister Venus.
- Williams returned to competition earlier in June with doubles appearances at Queen’s Club and the Berlin Open and those tune-up matches, plus Victoria Mboko’s subsequent knee injury, influenced her doubles pairings and preparation.
- Aryna Sabalenka’s comeback win over Nikola Bartunkova in the Berlin quarter-finals ensured that Bartunkova could not overtake Emma Raducanu in the live rankings, which guaranteed Raducanu a seeded spot at Wimbledon.
- Because the Championships lock their seed list at the June 22 cut-off, Raducanu’s top-32 seed is fixed and results from the remaining grass events will not change the protected draw positions.
- Serena’s wildcard creates a major Centre Court storyline and a practical draw consequence because she has no current singles ranking, meaning she could face top players early, while her career record of 23 Grand Slam singles titles and seven Wimbledon wins frames the comeback.