Serena Williams “is the star” at Wimbledon this year, and her “presence has been emanating” throughout the tournament as she prepares to play her first singles match at the event in four years Tuesday when she faces No. 53 Maya Joint in the first round (AP, 6/27). This is “some combination of Michael Jordan playing for the Wizards, Tom Brady unretiring and Mike Tyson still fighting." Wimbledon “could be a one-off” for Williams, “or it could be the start of another championship.” It is “gripping theater either way and will be the story of Wimbledon 2026 (at least for the opening week)” (SI, 6/26).
Williams says the “gruelling” nature of the anti-doping testing process almost stopped her from making a shock comeback. Williams: “It’s gruelling. That was a big reason why I didn’t want to come back either, because it’s just so hard. My life is busy, I run a [venture capital] company, I travel the world. I have children. It’s like I could be in so many different cities so many different times.” Those in the testing pool “must let the testers know where they will be for one hour of every single day.” A player who misses three competition tests “during that hour in a 12-month period is likely to be sanctioned.” But “a lot of players have voiced their concerns about the process, highlighting the stress which they say the system causes them” (BBC.com, 6/28).
