2024 ESPY Awards: Harrison Butker gets burned by Serena Williams
Tennis legend Serena Williams hosted the 2024 ESPY Awards, which celebrates the year’s greatest athletes, matches and moments.
Serena Williams’ evolution has brought her back to the tennis court.
Williams will compete in doubles at the HSBC Championship, a prelude to Wimbledon, with the tournament to be decided on Monday, June 1. This will be her first match in almost four years. She has not played since the 2022 US Open and said in August of that year that she was “evolving” away from tennis.
The HSBC Championship, also known as Queen’s, begins in London on June 8th.
All tournaments, including majors, have a number of wild-card spots reserved for up-and-comers, local players or, in Williams’ case, returning stars. Williams was given a wild card to Wimbledon when she returned in the summer of 2022 after a year out with a foot injury.
Williams, 44, raised eyebrows last fall when she re-entered the International Tennis Integrity Authority’s drug testing pool, a condition of playing again. She revealed in August that she had lost 31 pounds since taking the GLP-1 drug, and credited it with finally easing the joint pain she had been having since giving birth to her first daughter, Olympia, in September 2017.
However, Williams dismissed the idea of a comeback, calling it “wildfire.”
“Oh no, I’m not coming back. These wildfires are crazy –” Williams wrote to X on Dec. 2.
Williams had to remain in the pool for six months to become eligible again. According to the ITIA website, she was reinstated on February 22 this year.
Rumors of a comeback emerged last month when Alicia Parks posted a photo of herself practicing with Williams. Parks later told the Tennis Channel that they practice together about three times a week.
“She’s hitting well,” Parks told Tennis Channel in a March 19 interview. “She’s definitely fit, she looks great and she hits the ball great.”
Serena Williams, 23-time Grand Slam champion and cultural icon
Williams is one of the greatest tennis players of all time, male or female, and won 23 Grand Slam titles in 30 years. But her influence extends far beyond the game.
Williams shattered the idea that female tennis players needed to be delicate white women who embraced their muscles and curves. She played well into her 40s, winning the 2017 Australian Open while pregnant with her first child, and returned to the tour after giving birth to Olympia.
She spotlighted the crisis in maternal health care for Black women. She founded her own investment firm, Serena Ventures, to address the venture capital imbalance. She is a co-owner of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, the NWSL’s Angel City, and the WNBA’s expansion franchise Toronto Tempo.
“I kind of understood that people who looked like me had to start writing big checks,” Williams wrote in an August 2022 essay for Vogue magazine. “Like sometimes attracts like, and to change the situation where men are writing big checks to each other, we need more people in my position to give money back to them.”
Williams retired after the 2022 U.S. Open in part because she and husband Alexis Ohanian wanted more children.
“Trust me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and my family. I don’t think it’s fair,” Williams wrote in an essay for Vogue on Aug. 9, 2022. “But I turn 41 this month, so something’s got to give.”
Williams welcomed her second daughter, Adira, in August 2023.
In an interview with Porter published on Dec. 1, 2025, Williams said it’s still “hard” not to play tennis, but he misses it less than he used to.
“It’s not as bad as it was this time last year,” she told the magazine. “No matter how much you prepare for retirement, it’s hard to do something every day, especially at such a high level. I’ve prepared as best as I can, but it’s still a little difficult.”
