Jake Paul tipped to play at Wimbledon after 'disgraceful' Serena Williams decision

Following Serena Williams' wildcard entry to Wimbledon, one pundit has asked if Jake Paul could be next...

The most exciting tennis tournament of the year is finally here as the opening matches of Wimbledon 2026 got underway on Monday morning.

Several of the biggest names in the sport have arrived in London to compete, with the likes of Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic all among the favourites.

Unfortunately, Britain's presence among the top seeds took a major blow late on Sunday as it was confirmed that Emma Raducanu had withdrawn just 15 hours before her opening match due to injury.

However, arguably the biggest name in the whole competition isn't even in the top 500 in the official rankings, as 23-time major champion Williams was given a wildcard entry.

After four years away from the sport, Williams made her competitive return to tennis earlier this month and has played two doubles matches since.

She faces Australia's Maya Joint in her opening match, taking place on Monday at around 16:20 BST.

Although her return to Wimbledon has been met by excitement and positive speculation from many fans, Grand Slam-winning coach Calvin Betton isn't impressed, and he has fears her wildcard entry could be a slippery slope.

"I don’t think you can be doing stuff like this,’ Betton said on the Tennis Unfiltered podcast.

"Isn’t it a gateway drug to getting people like Jake Paul in there? He would put bums on seats and give tournaments some marketing reach… Where’s all this leading?

"I don’t think it would be that by the way, that’s me greatly exaggerating it, but what if one of the tournaments now says we would love to have Roger Federer playing and are willing to pay him millions?

"What if another tournament does the same with Rafael Nadal? It could get a bit silly.

"If she was coming back and saying, “I’m having a run at this, my intention is to get back to the top of the rankings and I want to see how well I can do” then I would be much more sympathetic to it and I would even back it.

"But we’re giving a wildcard to someone who’s not seriously trying to compete at tennis anymore and instead it’s purely for promotional reasons.

"This is my biggest problem with it. We keep hearing that she wants to come back and win – but she doesn’t want to win enough to stay around."

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Williams' first match during her return to SW19 will take place on Centre Court, a decision that Betton labelled as 'a disgrace' that calls the decision-making of the entire tournament into question.

"You can’t logistically put her on Centre Court, I don’t think," he claimed.

"There’s enough other big names in the game. Again, I’ll stress it, this is a 44-year-old who hasn’t played a singles tennis match in four years.

"I think they need to put her on Court Two or something, I don’t think you can put her on Centre, there’s just too many big names. She’s not a serious tennis player, she’s a retired tennis player.

"I don’t think you can put someone on Centre Court who hasn’t played a singles tennis match in four years and is 44 years old.

"It would be a disgrace, if would be a disgrace if they do. That tournament can’t be taken seriously if that happens."

How long is Serena Williams back playing tennis for?

It is not currently known how long Williams intends to be back competing on the court, but she recently suggested that it's unlikely that we will see her playing at Wimbledon again after this year.

Betton believes that she will only be around for a few months, competing at Wimbledon and the US Open later this summer, further calling into question the decision to give her a wildcard entry instead of other 'serious' professional players.

He added: "I suspect this return will just be for Wimbledon, the US Open and a couple of the Masters events, that’s it.

"And that’s where I have a problem because this is not a serious tennis professional and we’re giving them wildcards into the Wimbledon draw."