Serena Williams Shares Thoughts on Potentially Accepting Singles Wildcard at Wimbledon

On Tuesday (June 16), Wimbledon announced the wild cards, and many from the tennis world wanted to see two names on the list: Serena Williams and Maja Chwalinska. The Pole played the recently concluded French Open as a qualifier and reached the final, only to lose to Mirra Andreeva.

Because of her 116th ranking, she did not get direct entry into the Wimbledon main draw. She reached No.21 after the French Open, and Wimbledon granted her a wild card. Apart from Chwalinska, the other wild card entrants are: Harriet Dart, Alicia Dudeney, Hannah Klugman, Mika Stojsavljevic, Katie Swan, Mimi Xu. They are all from Britain.

There’s still one wild card available for the singles draw. “Oh my God, there’s still one left? There is?” was Williams’ reaction when asked whether she would be interested in playing singles during her press conference in Berlin.

That’s the question of the hour, right? I don’t know, I don’t know. I don’t why there is… I don’t know.

Serena Williams added

Williams, however, has received wild card for doubles along with sister Venus Williams. The winner of 14 Grand Slam doubles titles, the Williams sisters last won a Major doubles title in 2016.

“There’s still one Wimbledon singles wild card…would you like it?” 👀@serenawilliams: “What do you think?” 😂 pic.twitter.com/qHZinqM1YN

— Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) June 16, 2026

Williams has already played two doubles matches. She made her comeback from retirement at the Queen’s Club Championships, where she competed in doubles alongside Victoria Mboko.

After their win over Erin Routliffe and Nicole Melichar-Martinez in the first round, they were forced to hand the walkover to Laura Siegemund and Leylah Fernandez because of Mboko’s injury during her singles match against Karolina Pliskova. Williams next joined forces with Karolina Muchova for the Berlin Open. But they lost their first match to Routliffe and Giuliana Olmos.

The main draw of Wimbledon starts on June 29. In singles, Iga Swiatek will be competing as the defending champion. Last year, she clinched a 6-0, 6-0 win over Amanda Anisimova in the final.

Serena Williams on why she did not ask Coco Gauff for doubles

During the Berlin Open press conference, Serena Williams revealed why she did not ask Coco Gauff to team up for doubles. Williams thinks Gauff is focusing too much on singles at the moment.

I would really love to play with Coco; she was on my list of people that I wanted to play with. I should have done better research on who was on the charts. She’s so focused on singles nowadays; you never really know if [players] are playing doubles. I guess I should have asked her, though.

Gauff started her campaign for the grass swing at the Berlin Open, but her run ended in disappointment. She lost to Paula Badosa in three sets in the opening round. Prior to the Berlin event, the 22-year-old failed to defend her title at the French Open, losing to Anastasia Potapova in the third round. Gauff hasn’t yet won a title this season but has reached two finals so far.

After her defeat to Aryna Sabalenka in the Miami Open final, Elina Svitolina beat her in the final of the Italian Open. She last won a title at the 2025 Wuhan Open.

Gauff has won 11 singles titles from 16 finals but has never reached a title clash on grass. At Wimbledon, Gauff has never made the quarterfinals and, in fact, it’s the only Major where she has yet to reach the last eight.

She has played the fourth round of the grass-court Major thrice, most recently reaching that stage in 2024. But last year, she suffered an opening-round exit.

Badosa, after her win over Gauff, will schedule her quarterfinal match against Linda Noskova or Diane Parry. Marketa Vondrousova is the reigning champion, but she did not compete.

Also read: Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner Warned They ‘Won’t Be Able to Rest Easy Anymore’ After Alexander Zverev’s French Open Win