Serena returns to Wimbledon as challengers thin

Serena Williams arrives at Wimbledon on Monday for her third grass-court tournament since coming out of retirement, with her singles return set to begin against Maya Joint. Her doubles comeback has already been shaped by partner Victoria Mboko’s MCL injury and

Serena Williams doesn’t walk into Wimbledon like it’s just another stop on the calendar. She arrives with unfinished business in her body—and an entire season’s worth of pressure riding on whether her timing holds up on grass.

Williams returns to the grass-court Slam on Monday. It’s her third tournament since she came out of retirement at the Queen’s Club Championships earlier this month. For the 23-time Grand Slam winner. this is the stage where the margin between a storybook comeback and a quick exit can be measured in a single set.

Her comeback also comes during a week tennis fans have already felt in their gut: the sudden removal of bodies that were supposed to be there.

At Queen’s Club, Williams’ doubles partner Victoria Mboko—Canadian—suffered an MCL injury during her singles match. That forced the pair to withdraw, and it also sent Mboko home, meaning she will miss Wimbledon.

The wider absence list adds to the sense that this tournament will ask the remaining stars to stretch further than they planned. Another major name, 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, is suspended four years for refusing an anti-doping test.

Still, the draw is set to deliver early sparks, starting with Round 1, where Taylor Fritz is scheduled to face Jack Draper.

Williams’ first hurdle is already clear: she is set to take on 20-year-old Maya Joint. Joint has not made it past the first round at Wimbledon in her young career. Williams, meanwhile, is walking in with doubles results that don’t settle the debate for her singles future.

Since her return, Williams has played two doubles matches. She opened with a first-round win with Mboko. After Mboko’s injury ended that partnership, Williams then played in Berlin with Czechia’s Karolina Muchova. That pairing fell in straight sets. Even so. Williams—44 years old—looked agile and strong in Berlin. showing flashes similar to her 2022 form. which was her last year on tour.

Now her doubles path inside Wimbledon comes with a different kind of gravity: her sister Venus. The Williams sisters have won 14 Grand Slams together, including six at Wimbledon, most recently in 2016. On the 10-year anniversary of that championship. Serena and Venus—44 and 46 years old respectively—are trying to add another chapter to a partnership that has already defined doubles at the highest level.

In singles, though, Serena’s story is still about whether grass can sharpen what doubles can blur. If she gets past Joint. her expected Round 2 opponent is 21-year-old Alexandra Eala. who has four wins against top-10 players this season. including two at last week’s grass-court Berlin Open. After Eala, the field projects a harder climb: No. 3 Iga Swiatek, the last year’s champion. For Williams, even reaching the fourth round would be astounding.

Doubles is a different ballgame. Same court, different physics. The Williams sisters own a staggering 45-5 all-time doubles record at the All England Club. with Serena winning five of her seven Wimbledon singles Majors. Despite their combined ages and Serena’s un-retirement, they remain the most dominant doubles pairing in tennis history. If their bodies hold up, there’s no telling how far they can go.

While Williams draws the sport’s attention, men’s seeds and Canadian hope are another storyline waiting to be forced into reality.

Felix Auger-Aliassime has entered Wimbledon tied to a Canadian tennis record. Going into the tournament as the No. 3 seed in men’s singles, the 25-year-old has matched Milos Raonic as the highest-seeded Canadian singles player at a Grand Slam—Raonic did it at the Australian Open in 2017.

At last month’s Roland Garros, Auger-Aliassime was the 4-seed. In the points race, he jumped Novak Djokovic after Djokovic’s third-round exit in Paris. London, though, is where confidence meets whatever the sport sends back.

His recent form carries doubts. After a quarterfinal collapse versus Flavio Cobboli at Roland Garros, Auger-Aliassime won the first set and then dropped three straight. In the post-match press conference, he said: “I’m destroyed today.” He added, “I feel like I’m not the player I want to be.”

The Cobboli match became, in effect, a shortcut for the French Open final. Semifinalist Mateo Arnaldi withdrew in a walkover, and Cobboli went on to lose the final to Alexander Zverev.

For Auger-Aliassime, there’s also a stubborn pattern. He has played at least one quarterfinal at all four Grand Slams without ever making it beyond. Wimbledon has been no exception to the question hanging over his results.

His projected quarterfinal matchup is Novak Djokovic, a meeting that hasn’t happened since 2022. The two have beaten each other once. Beyond Djokovic is reigning champion Jannik Sinner, who could be Auger-Aliassime’s semifinal opponent. Sinner leads their head-to-head 5-2.

For the Canadian, making the semifinal would be a tremendous accomplishment. He has won only one match at the last four Wimbledon Championships, so this is a tournament where a run would change how people measure him.

The weather itself could play a role—especially for Sinner.

London is expected to be sweltering. Temperatures are projected to reach 30 degrees by next weekend. That matters because Sinner performs poorly in extreme heat and is prone to cramping. His stunning second-round loss in France came on a day where temperatures were in the mid-30s. He dropped 15 of the last 17 games and fell to unseeded Juan Manuel Cerundolo. After that match, it looked like the strain hit him not just in play but in the body.

Heat cramps have been a recurring issue for the No. 1 player in the world. Sinner ran into the same problem in Australia, falling behind against unseeded Eliot Spizzirri before the Rod Laver Arena roof was closed under the tournament’s extreme heat policy.

There’s some protection in the rulebook. New heat rules ensure players have an extended break between the second and third sets to rest and recharge. Wimbledon’s two largest courts feature retractable roofs. but they are almost exclusively used against precipitation and are not necessarily retracted for extreme temperatures.

Even when the spotlight moves, Canadian tennis fans have a familiar name coming back into the Major spotlight.

Bianca Andreescu qualified for Wimbledon this week and is set to play the main draw for the first time since 2024. The Mississauga, Ont. native hasn’t qualified for any Grand Slam since the 2024 US Open. Andreescu’s 2019 US Open victory was a flagship moment for Canadian tennis. and she remains the only Canadian to win a singles Grand Slam title.

Her return to the biggest stage has come with bumps. She hasn’t competed for a singles title since 2019, and during the dip in form she has been ranked as low as No. 234. The sport has its own history of that kind of fall after early success—often tied to injuries or personal issues.

Eugenie Bouchard is the comparison that still sits heavy for Canadian fans. Bouchard was a Wimbledon finalist in 2014 and never won a singles title following that tournament. She retired last year at age 31.

Both Andreescu and Bouchard have been sturdy ambassadors for tennis nationally, even when results didn’t match the talent fans saw.

Andreescu now gets a first-round test against 37-year-old veteran Zhang Shuai. Zhang Shuai was a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon in 2019. Andreescu’s ankle injuries have hampered her once-elite mobility. but she still has the kind of power that can shift momentum in a hurry. At Wimbledon. that’s the whole question: whether her movement can survive the grass. and whether her shots can remind the world why she’s a Major champion.

At Wimbledon, the quiet truth is that every absence leaves space—and every space is dangerous. Serena Williams is stepping into that space with doubles history behind her and a singles debut against Maya Joint ahead. Felix Auger-Aliassime has the seeding and the record-tie. but also the burden of what hasn’t happened yet at Grand Slams. And for Jannik Sinner, the forecast and the body might decide more than the draw.

Wimbledon Serena Williams Maya Joint Venus Williams Victoria Mboko Victoria Mboko injury Felix Auger-Aliassime Novak Djokovic Jannik Sinner Iga Swiatek Alexandra Eala Bianca Andreescu Zhang Shuai