Serena Williams had to talk self into playing singles at Wimbledon - ESPN

LONDON — Serena Williams had to talk herself into accepting Wimbledon's offer to play singles.

The All England club was holding one last wild-card entry and the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion — who had already announced she'd play doubles with her sister Venus — had a decision to make.

«I thought I should really take this opportunity. Who knows if I'll ever make it here again. This could be it,» the 44-year-old Williams said Sunday at a news conference.

«I was like, 'What's wrong with me, Serena? What are you thinking? Are you nuts? Like you really should do this,'» she added. «People live to be an athlete. I have this great opportunity to showcase what I do, what I do best, I suppose. Yeah, I think ultimately I was like that is pretty cool, so I should do it.»

Williams' first match at the grass-court Grand Slam since 2022 will take place on Centre Court on Tuesday night, when she faces 20-year-old Maya Joint of Australia as part of her evolving tennis comeback.

Williams had been away from the sport since her farewell at the 2022 US Open.

Her most-recent appearance at Wimbledon was in 2022, when she lost in the opening round to Harmony Tan, who at that time was ranked 115th. The American great walked away from tennis — she described it as «evolving» away — after losing in the third round to Ajla Tomljanovic at Flushing Meadows.

After earlier accepting a wild card in doubles, Williams described the process of making her decision for singles.

«So I think it was on, I had until Monday to decide. I think it was like Sunday. I just wasn't sure up until then,» she said. «Honestly, I'm still not even sure, but we'll see.»

Williams is a seven-time Wimbledon singles champion but said Saturday that «in general my expectations