Serena Williams makes long-awaited career announcement following tennis hiatus

hellomagazine.com:

Serena Williams is not quite ready to hang up her racket and walk away! Despite rumors that she might not return to the tennis court, she will in fact be making a comeback, and to the most famous court of them all.MORE: Serena Williams revisits unbelievable spring fashion – including stunning backless dressDespite being excluded from the original entry list, the star has confirmed she will be participating in Wimbledon for the 21st time, as a wildcard.Tennis fans weren't convinced she would be joining the iconic competition after an injury at last year's games, which forced her out of her first-round match with Aliaksandra Sasnovich.WATCH: Serena and daugter Olympia are matchy-heavenMORE: Serena Williams celebrates daughter Olympia's achievement with husband Alexis OhanianSerena has not been active in competitive tennis since the ankle injury a year ago.

However, both the official Wimbledon page as well as Serena confirmed her participation.Aliaksandra, the tennis player competing against Serena when she slipped and injured herself, is from Belarus, and is one of the players banned by Wimbledon this year because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has been supported by Belarus.The athlete celebrated the news of her comeback on Instagram with a photo of her Nike shoes as she stood on grass, which she captioned with: "SW and SW19.

It's a date. 2022 See you there. Let's Go."The stage awaits. Our 7-time champion @serenawilliams will return to Wimbledon as a wild card this summer for her 21st appearance pic.twitter.com/7ddMAv7mOqWimbledon confirmed the exciting news by highlighting each year the star has wonThe mom-of-one is a seven-time Wimbledon champion.