Wimbledon announce shock wildcard with legendary doubles partnership set to return

Serena Williams and Venus Williams have been handed a shock wildcard entry for the Wimbledon women's doubles.

Neither of the tennis legends qualified for the singles event, which has only one wildcard place remaining. Serena is currently ranked at No. 593 in the world, while Venus is No. 479.

Wildcards are given to players whose world ranking is not high enough to qualify automatically, but who are accepted into the tournament at the discretion of the committee.

Goran Ivanisevic famously won the men's singles title as a wildcard entry in 2001, while Serena and Venus have twice won the women's doubles tournament as a wildcard.

Serena, 44, made her tennis comeback at Queen's last week, four years after her previous match at the 2022 US Open. She will also participate in the Berlin Open this week, although her plans beyond that tournament were unclear until the Wimbledon wildcard was awarded.

The younger of the two sisters, she won seven singles titles at Wimbledon in her illustrious career and another six titles alongside her sibling in the doubles at the All England Club. She also won one Wimbledon mixed doubles tournament when she teamed up with Max Mirnyi in 1998.

Venus, 45, won five Wimbledon singles titles during her career, along with six doubles titles she won alongside her sister. She reached the mixed doubles final in 2006 alongside Bob Bryan, but the pair were defeated by Andy Ram and Vera Zvonareva.

The Williams sisters also won Gold in the doubles at the 2012 London Olympics, which was also held at Wimbledon.

Williams sisters could earn shock partnerships at US Open

News of the Williams sisters being handed a Wimbledon wildcard comes just days after it was reported that the pair could team up with Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner at the US Open.

The report claims that seven-time Grand Slam singles champion Alcaraz will partner 23-time major winner Serena, while four-time Grand Slam champion Sinner is set to team up with seven-time singles major champion Williams.

The US Open revamped the mixed doubles format last year, staging the event in the week before the main draw. The change enabled many of the world’s leading players to use the shortened competition as preparation for the singles tournament.

This year, the main tournament runs from August 31 to September 13, while the mixed doubles competition will take place during Fan Week and be completed within three days. Qualification is scheduled for August 24, with the opening two rounds on August 25. The semi-finals and final will then be contested on August 26.