LONDON, ENGLAND – JULY 09: Venus Williams of The United States and Serena Williams of The United States hold their trophies following victory in the Ladies Doubles Final against Timea Babos of Hungary and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan on day twelve of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 9, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
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Serena and Venus Williams have been given a wildcard to play doubles at Wimbledon later this month.
Serena, 44, made her return to competitive tennis for the first time in four years last week with 19-year-old Victoria Mboko. The duo won their first match before Mboko had to pull out of the event due to a knee injury suffered in singles.
Serena will also compete this week in the Berlin Open with partner Karolina Muchova. Their first match is at 11:30 am E.T. Tuesday.
Before last week, Serena had not played competitive tennis since the 2022 U.S. Open, when she said she was “evolving” away from tennis to focus on raising her two daughters, Olympia and Adira.
Venus, who has still been competing sporadically, turns 46 on Wednesday.
The Williams sisters have won 14 Grand Slam titles together in doubles, including six at Wimbledon — the first of them in 2000 and the last in 2016. Their first two doubles titles at Wimbledon, in 2000 and 2002, came as wild cards.
Wimbledon runs June 29-July 12.
(The AP contributed reporting.)