Twenty-three time Grand Slam singles winner Serena Williams has seemingly confirmed that she will be making her highly-anticipated comeback at this year's Wimbledon.
The 40-year-old has been out of action since suffering a leg injury during last year's major tournament as she withdrew from her first-round contest with Belarus' Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
Williams was 3-1 up in her first-round match with Sasnovich before initially sustaining the issue, but she carried on for two more games as the Belarusian levelled for 3-3.
However, Williams then let out a cry as she went down a second time and was tearfully forced to retire from the contest to a standing ovation from the British crowd.
Williams - a seven-time Wimbledon singles champion - was subsequently forced to miss the US and Australian Open tournaments and plummeted down the world rankings during her recovery.
The American now finds herself ranked 1,208 in the WTA standings, but she teased her return to Wimbledon with a post on Instagram displaying her shoes and a bag on the grass court.
Williams accompanied the image with the caption: "SW and SW19. It's a date. 2022, see you there," in reference to the Wimbledon postcode, apparently confirming her return for the Grand Slam.
Williams also tagged the Eastbourne International in her post, which is due to begin on Saturday and run for seven days before Wimbledon starts on June 27.
The former world number one's injury last year meant that she would have been able to compete at Wimbledon with protected ranking status, but she will instead have to enter as a wildcard.
Williams and her sister Venus Williams were nowhere to be seen on the Wimbledon entry list, but Serena may battle for glory in the doubles events at SW19.
As well as her 23 Grand Slam singles wins, Serena and Venus Williams have won 14 of their 14 major women's doubles finals - six of which have come at Wimbledon since 2000.
Serena also won the 1998 Wimbledon mixed doubles with Belarus' Max Mirnyi and reached the third round of the event in 2019 with two-time singles champion Andy Murray.
The current world number 1,208 clinched her first Wimbledon singles crown in 2002 before also winning the 2003, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2016 editions prior to the birth of her daughter.
Serena managed to reach the finals of the 2018 and 2019 tournaments after coming back from maternity leave, but she went down in straight sets on both occasions to Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep respectively.
Ben Knapton
