Serena Williams gets Wimbledon doubles wildcard with sister Venus

Serena Williams will return to Wimbledon alongside Venus Williams, with the All England Club handing the sisters a wildcard into the women’s doubles draw and setting up one of the tournament’s most marketable entries before a ball is struck. Serena, 44, had not played at Wimbledon since 2022, while Venus turns 46 on Wednesday, June 17, 2026.

The decision carries weight beyond nostalgia. Wimbledon opens on Monday, June 29, and runs 14 days to Sunday, July 12, with the women’s doubles beginning on Wednesday of opening week after the first two days of singles. A Williams sisters run would instantly redirect attention toward a doubles event that often fights for oxygen behind the singles brackets, giving the Championships a marquee storyline that can cut through the early-round schedule.

Competitively, the pair arrives with history but little recent match rhythm together. Serena and Venus last played doubles at the 2022 U.S. Open, where they lost in the first round, and Serena’s recent return to competition came at the Queen’s Club Championships, where she partnered Canadian Victoria Mboko. Even so, the sisters remain one of the most accomplished doubles teams in tennis, with 14 Grand Slam titles together and six Wimbledon women’s doubles crowns, beginning in 2000 and last captured in 2016.

The wildcard also underlines how Wimbledon still uses discretion to shape its fields. Wild cards have been awarded since 1977 to players whose rankings do not qualify them automatically, and they are often given for past Wimbledon performance or to increase British interest. In this case, the choice is unmistakably about more than filling a slot. It signals that the Championships still value names that can deepen audience attention, lift broadcast appeal and sharpen the commercial profile of the opening week.

There is still one singles wildcard place left to be announced for Wimbledon 2026, but the doubles entry is already the headline act. For the women’s doubles field, it means a draw that suddenly contains two players whose legacy stretches across generations, and for Wimbledon it is another reminder that star power remains one of the sport’s most influential currencies.