Serena Williams Says Tennis Comeback Is ‘Nothing Long-Term’

NEW YORK — At the 14th annual Forbes Power Women’s Summit on Thursday, Serena Williams said her return to professional tennis is not a long-term plan. Williams, 44, spoke onstage at Jazz at Lincoln Center with Moira Forbes, the executive vice president at Forbes.

Her daughters are 9-year-old Olympia and 3-year-old Adira. Forbes reported that Williams wants them to see “the person that’s in their schoolbooks.”

“[It’s] nothing long-term,” Williams said. “It’s more or less having a lot of fun.”

Business and investing take up most of Williams’ life now, according to Forbes. She founded Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm, in 2014.

“I think we [as women] are expected to wear several hats and not complain about it,” Williams explained, “and I feel like owning that message and owning that moment, and then I have two girls, and showing my girls that they can do that too.”

Before this summer, Williams had not played a professional match since the 2022 U.S. Open, where she lost in the third round of singles to Ajla Tomljanović. She described that step at the time as an evolution away from the sport rather than a retirement. Seven of her 23 Grand Slam singles titles came at Wimbledon, and six came at the U.S. Open.

Serena Williams’ Comeback Began At Queen’s Club With Victoria Mboko

On June 9, Williams played her first professional match in nearly four years at the HSBC Championships, a WTA 500 grass-court event at Queen’s Club in London. She had accepted a wild card into the doubles draw with Canada’s Victoria Mboko.

Williams and Mboko beat the No. 3 seeds, Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe, 7-6 (2), 6-2. Some of Williams’ service winners reached 120 mph. It was her first appearance at Queen’s Club, which went more than 50 years without a women’s tournament before the WTA returned there in 2025.

Williams had grown tired of sitting at home. “My kids are out of school for the summer, so why not?” Williams told reporters at Queen’s Club.

Mboko hurt her left knee the next day when she slipped on the grass in a singles match. She withdrew from the tournament, and the quarterfinal was never played, Just Women’s Sports reported.

A week after Queen’s Club, Williams partnered with Karolína Muchová at the Berlin Open, another WTA 500 on grass. Giuliana Olmos and Routliffe beat them 6-4, 6-4 on June 16. Williams said afterward that she felt “more nimble and more sturdy and quicker than the first match,” the AP reported.

That same day, Wimbledon gave Williams and her sister, Venus Williams, a wild card into women’s doubles. On June 30, Serena returned to singles in the first round at the All England Club. Maya Joint of Australia won 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3. Serena hurt her knee near the end of the first set.

The sisters withdrew from doubles on July 4, the day they were scheduled to play their first-round match. Serena wrote on Instagram that “my knee just isn’t ready to compete.”

Serena Williams And Venus Williams Reunited In Cincinnati And New York

On Aug. 17, Serena and Venus played doubles together for the first time since 2022 at the Cincinnati Open. Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns won 6-2, 1-6, 10-8, with a 10-point match tiebreak played in place of a third set.

Kostyuk and Stearns opened the tiebreak with a 6-0 lead. The sisters cut the deficit to 8-7 and then 9-8. Venus double-faulted on the next point to end the match. It was their first doubles match at a non-Grand Slam event since the 2016 Italian Open, according to the AP.

Serena said the sisters shook off some rust in the middle of the match. “I didn’t come out here to win this tournament,” Serena said.

In the week before the U.S. Open main draw, Serena played the tournament’s mixed doubles event with Carlos Alcaraz, the defending men’s singles champion. They beat Routliffe and Lloyd Glasspool in their opening match. Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli eliminated them 5-4 (4), 4-1 in the quarterfinals on Aug. 25.

The U.S. Tennis Association announced a women’s doubles wild card for Serena and Venus on Aug. 26. Hao-Ching Chan and Joint, the No. 14 seeds, beat the sisters 6-3, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (10-7) on Sept. 4. The match was played at night in Arthur Ashe Stadium and lasted 3 hours, 2 minutes. The sisters led the final tiebreak 5-0. It was Joint’s second win over Serena this summer.

ESPN averaged 1.1 million viewers across ESPN and ESPN2 for its coverage that Friday night. The USTA said after the match that the sisters would not be available for comment.

The sisters won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles together, including the U.S. Open in 1999 and 2009. They also won Olympic doubles gold in 2000, 2008, and 2012.

Forbes estimates Serena’s net worth at $400 million, the most of any woman who made her money mainly as an athlete. Forbes also estimates she earned $40.1 million over the past year, which ranked third on its 2026 list of the world’s highest-paid tennis players.