Tennis is great Serena Williams reached out to X on Tuesday to insist she has no plans to return to the court, hours after it was revealed she had re-entered the sport's drug testing panel.
“Oh my god, I’m NOT coming back,” 23-time Grand Slam singles champion. wrote. “This forest fire is just crazy…”
Williams played her last match September 2, 2002 – Defeated by Australian Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round of the US Open. The next day, Williams registered as retired with the International Tennis Integrity Agency, which oversees the sport's anti-doping and anti-corruption efforts, meaning she was no longer subject to regular drug testing.
An ITIA spokesman confirmed to The Times on Tuesday that Williams had returned to the agency's drug testing pool. Retired players “may not return to sanctioned events unless they provide the opportunity for out-of-competition testing at least six months prior to the event in question,” according to the ITIA website.
That's why talk of Williams' potential return spread like wildfire before the 44-year-old tried to put out the flames on X. The mother of two did not explain why she returned to the testing pool. A representative for Williams did not immediately respond to The Times' request for comment.
Williams is known avoided the word “pension” when she announced her plan to retire from tennis in a Vogue column in August 2022.
“Maybe the best word to describe what I do is evolution,” she said. “I'm here to tell you that I'm moving away from tennis to other things that are important to me.”
Older sister Venus WilliamsThe seven-time Grand Slam champion returned to the court earlier this year after a long break. During her performance in the quarterfinals of the US Open women's doubles with partner Leila Fernandez, Venus Williams mentioned that her sister “distance learning“
