This is the real deal now.<\/p>\n
After initially returning in doubles, Serena Williams<\/a> is ramping up her tennis return<\/a> with singles, too.<\/p>\n At Wimbledon<\/a>, of all places.<\/p>\n All eyes will be on the 44-year-old Williams when she competes in the first round of the grass-court Grand Slam, which starts Monday.<\/p>\n While she has played two doubles warmup matches<\/a> recently, Williams hasn\u2019t contested an official singles match in nearly four years.<\/p>\n ESPN commentator Mary Joe Fernandez called it \u201ca sign of confidence\u201d that Serena is prepared to enter the sport\u2019s most prestigious tournament without having played a singles match in so long.<\/p>\n \u201cBut if anybody can do it,\u201d Fernandez said, \u201cit\u2019s Serena.\u201d<\/p>\n Added fellow ESPN commentator Patrick McEnroe, \u201cI would call this Serena being Serena. It\u2019s very Serena-like to do something audacious like this and I didn\u2019t think for one minute she was coming back to play doubles (only).\u201d<\/p>\n Williams has accepted wild card invitations for both singles and doubles (with sister Venus) from the All England Club.<\/p>\n Williams made her return this month by playing two doubles matches with two different partners. She won with Victoria Mboko<\/a> at Queen\u2019s Club and lost with Karolina Muchova at the Berlin Open.<\/p>\n Williams\u2019 powerful serve and returns were on display but it remains to be seen how well she can cover the entire court and how much stamina she has for singles.<\/p>\n With 23 Grand Slam singles titles \u2014 seven of them at Wimbledon \u2014 and 14 more in doubles (all with Venus as her partner), nobody is questioning her qualifications, experience or aura.<\/p>\n \u201cHopefully she\u2019ll be able to be competitive right off the bat,\u201d McEnroe added.<\/p>\n Serena also swept the singles and doubles (with Venus) titles at the 2012 London Olympics, when the tennis competition was held on the hallowed grass of the All England Club. And she was the runner-up four times in singles at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n Serena will learn who her first-round opponent is on Friday when the singles draws for Wimbledon are held. Then her opening match will be either next Monday or Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one\u2019s going to want to face her,\u201d said Fernandez, who coached Williams as Fed Cup captain and on the U.S. Olympic team.<\/p>\n The Williams sisters\u2019 opening doubles match will come later in the opening week.<\/p>\n Sabalenka and Swiatek<\/p>\n Despite her resume, Serena is by no means the favorite for the trophy.<\/p>\n Among the top contenders are top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka<\/a>, 2022 champion Elena Rybakina<\/a> and freshly crowned French Open champion Mirra Andreeva<\/a>, who at 19 is 25 years younger than Serena.<\/p>\n Sabalenka is looking to bounce back from a crushing defeat at Roland Garros, where she let a big lead slip away and didn\u2019t win a game in the third set of a loss to Diana Shnaider in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n Rybakina is known as one of the game\u2019s best servers and her game adapts well to grass.<\/p>\n Andreeva reached the quarterfinals in London last year and will have more confidence after her performance in Paris.<\/p>\n Iga Swiatek<\/a> is the defending champion and moves well on grass.<\/p>\n Since Serena has no ranking and won\u2019t be seeded, she could potentially face any of the top players in the opening round.<\/p>\n Sinner and Djokovic<\/p>\n With Carlos Alcaraz still sidelined<\/a> with a right wrist injury that also kept him out of the French Open, Jannik Sinner is favored to defend his title \u2014 even after the top-ranked Sinner\u2019s stunning second-round meltdown<\/a> in a Paris heat wave.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s Sinner and then it\u2019s everyone else,\u201d McEnroe said. \u201cThat\u2019s the bottom line on the men\u2019s side.\u201d<\/p>\n French Open champion Alexander Zverev<\/a> has never been past the fourth round at the All England Club and lost his opening match<\/a> a year ago.<\/p>\n