Eyes have been one of the best tennis players to play the game, as Serena Williams has the chance at a possible comeback to the professional sport. Williams has recently been listed by the sport's drug testing organization as eligible to return to competition on Feb. 22, according to Ben Rothenberg of BOUNCES.
“Serena Williams is going to gain reinstatement to tennis before the end of this month, when she will have completed her six months back in the tennis testing pool. The Serena comeback is now officially official,” Rothenberg wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
This is six months after Williams registered with the International Tennis Integrity Agency, and she is now listed on the reinstatement page. Williams was quick to shut down any rumors of her possibly coming back when the news first came out about her registering with ITIA to return to the drug testing pool.
She simply said, “Omg yall I'm NOT coming back. This wildfire is crazy” on social media.
The last time that Williams competed in a match was the 2022 US Open, and it felt as if she was still leaving the door open for a return, especially since she didn't want to say she was flat-out retiring.
As far as the ITIA list, athletes who return to testing have to provide information on where they've been when they are not at an official event and times when they are available to give samples. For athletes who retire while they're on the list and come back need to be available for testing for six months before they are allowed to return to compete.
At this point, it's uncertain if Williams will return, but if she wanted to, it looks like she's hitting all the benchmarks to do so.
