Serena Williams puts comeback focus on family, not results

Serena Williams returns to tennis after nearly four years, starting with doubles at the HSBC Championship in London and later the Berlin Open, telling reporters she’s feeling “no pressure” and framing the comeback around her kids rather than singles-or-titles

Serena Williams walked into the HSBC Championships in London with a simple message for anyone watching closely for a comeback script.

No pressure.

“Why not? For lack of a better explanation,” Williams said Sunday, June 7 at the tournament, where she will play doubles with Canada’s Victoria Mboko. The appearance comes after she confirmed June 1 that she was coming out of retirement, ending months of speculation.

The stakes are obvious on the calendar. The HSBC Championships—also known as Queen’s Club—will be Williams’ first tournament since the U.S. Open in 2022. She has also said she will play doubles at the Berlin Open later this month. Both Queen’s Club and the Berlin Open are on grass. which has fueled speculation about whether she might play Wimbledon. a tournament she has won seven times. Williams did not address Wimbledon Sunday, saying she was putting “no pressure” on herself with the comeback.

“I’ve had enough pressure,” the 23-time Grand Slam champion said. “For me right now, it’s really just about … my kids getting to see me play. Olympia is a little bit older, Adira is very young, but it’s also still moments like that.”

She described the feeling of a rare opportunity—one she’s not treating like a final exam.

“It’s also just, an athlete is like the best thing that you can be in the highest place,” she added. “Having an opportunity to still be able to possibly do that one last time is kind of cool and exciting.”

Williams said she isn’t sure if she’ll play singles. “I can’t say yeah, I can say no right now,” she said. “I feel like I probably need to train a little bit more if I want to play singles and we’ll see if I get there. And, if not, that’s not my journey right now.”

The comeback follows a break that was never just about tennis. When Williams stepped away in 2022. she said it was partly because she and her husband. Alexis Ohanian. wanted more children; their second daughter. Adira. was born in August 2023. She later said she’d also been dealing with joint pain after having her first daughter, Olympia, in 2017.

Now 44. Williams said she lost 31 pounds after going on a GLP-1 drug and credited the medication with finally helping relieve the joint pain. She rejoined the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s drug-testing pool. a requirement to play again. last fall. signaling a comeback was possible. Williams was reinstated Feb. 22.

Asked what she missed most, she pointed to the life around the sport rather than the scoreboard.

“The biggest thing I’ve missed is just the atmosphere. And the travel. I love traveling,” she said. “I’ve (played tennis) literally my entire life. So when you stop something that you’ve done since, honestly, I can remember, I don’t remember a start date, I think you kind of take it for granted.”

For her, returning also means sharing the routine with her family.

“So now, there’s different things I can try to experience in a different way that I’ve never been able to do before, and also do it with my family,” Williams said. “Just have kind of a little bit of a different experience.”

In doubles, Williams has often had Venus as her partner—at times, with the two acting like a familiar gravitational pull on the tour. With Venus playing sporadically now, Williams reached out to Mboko, a 19-year-old currently ranked No. 9 in the world.

Mboko won her first WTA title last year at the National Bank Open in August, then won her second title three months later at the Hong Kong Open.

Williams said she noticed more than just results in Mboko.

“I was quite impressed with her game, I was impressed with her attitude,” Williams recalled. “What I liked the most about her was the next time she played, she still kept winning. I was like, `OK, I love that.’ It reminded me a lot of myself.”

Williams said that drive stood out because athletes can sometimes have a lull after a breakthrough.

“Sometimes you win one and then you have a little bit of a lull, which is normal and that’s OK as well,” she said. “But I loved how she had this drive.”

For Mboko, the connection didn’t feel transactional—it was personal. She grew up idolizing Williams, and Williams messaging her to ask if she wanted to play doubles together was “pretty cool.”

The two have been hitting together the last couple days, and Mboko said she has been impressed—by Williams’ play and by her personality.

“I personally think she’s ready to go,” Mboko said. “She’s a really funny person. Spending time with her on court so far has been really a pleasure. I feel like I can learn a lot from her but, at the same time, I think we can have a lot of fun.”

Williams said she is feeling more comfortable the more she’s on court, and when asked if it was like riding a bike, she said yes—though not without effort.

“Up a hill. But I’m enjoying the ride.”

Comebacks are usually measured with hard numbers: wins and losses, titles, whether the final chapter looks like the early ones. Williams is not building her return around that kind of judgment.

“I don’t need to win. I’ve won more than most people have in their whole lives,” she said. “So for me, that is not important to me. And it’s important I keep reminding myself of that. Because I don’t have anything to prove, I don’t have anything to lose. Everything here is just to gain.”

Serena Williams HSBC Championship Queen's Club Victoria Mboko doubles tennis Berlin Open Wimbledon speculation GLP-1 drug Alexis Ohanian International Tennis Integrity Agency drug-testing pool National Bank Open Hong Kong Open grass court tennis