Twenty-three-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams is liberating herself of any expectations as she prepares to make her comeback at the HSBC Championships in London.
The 44-year-old has been given a wild card for the women's doubles to play alongside 19-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko at the Queen's Club, marking her first competitive tennis since a farewell at the 2022 US Open.
Williams said her decision to pick up a racket again boiled down to a simple "Why not?" And while Mboko feels her partner is "hitting great," the American insists she is not focused on any outcomes.
"I don't need to win," Williams said. "I've won more than most people have in their whole lives, so it's not that important to me, and it's important that I keep reminding myself of that, because I don't have anything to prove.
"I don't have anything to lose, and everything here is just to gain."
Serena Williams said she has nothing more to prove as she prepares for the HSBC Championships. (Photo by Luke Walker/Getty Images for LTA) Williams never directly used the word retirement, but Monday's comeback confirmation still came as a shock after the mother of two had, to use her preferred terminology at the time, made the decision to "evolve away" from tennis.
Speaking after she and Mboko trained on the Queen's Club grass, Williams said: "This whole journey is like, I'm putting no pressure on myself.
"For me right now, it's really just about so many elements. It's really about my kids getting to see me play. Olympia is a little bit older, Adira is very young.
"An athlete is the best thing that you can be in the highest place, and having an opportunity to still be able to do that, possibly one last time, is kind of cool and exciting."
The seven-time Wimbledon singles champion, who claimed 39 Grand Slam titles (including doubles and mixed doubles) and spent 319 weeks as the WTA No. 1 at the peak of her career, has not exactly ruled out a return to singles, but suggested it was not imminent.
"I can't say no right now," she said. "I feel like I probably need to train a little bit more if I want to play singles, and we will see if I get there, and if not... that's not my journey right now."