Serena Williams’s tenure at this year’s Wimbledon is over.
The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion announced she is withdrawing from the women’s doubles with her sister Venus due to a swollen knee. Williams, the 44-year-old mother of two daughters, previously lost her first-round singles match on Tuesday to Maya Joint after a near four-year layoff from competitive tennis.
“I’m heartbroken to have to withdraw from doubles,” she announced on social media. “Coming back to compete again has been a gift, and the opportunity to play alongside Venus once more meant the world to me. I did everything I could to be ready, but unfortunately my knee just isn’t ready to compete.
“I’m especially grateful to tournament director, Jamie Baker, and the entire tournament team for giving me every opportunity to play here. Thank you to the fans for your incredible support and for making this comeback so meaningful…..All I can say is stay tuned to a city near you…”
Williams shared photos of fluid that was drained from her injured knee.
“The photo of the syringes shows the fluid they drained from my knee after my singles match…yikes! The good news is my knee shouldn’t swell or collect that much fluid again. The bad news is that, as hard as I tried, I just wasn’t able to get it ready for doubles.”
Venus and Serena were set to face Solana Sierra and Camila Osorio on Saturday morning ET.
Officials gave Serena extra time to rest before playing doubles. The sisters were initially supposed to play Thursday or Friday, and then the match was pushed back.
“Serena is a little banged up in the knee, had a little bit of a problem in her match, which is normal when you haven’t played for almost four years,” Andy Roddick said on ESPN.
“The tournament, I think, gave them a little bit of relief here, trying to get that extra day for Serena to be able to play.”
Serena made her return to competitive tennis for the first time in four years and fell in three sets to Joint. She then skipped her post-match media availability but avoided the $50,000 fine for doing so.
Before the grass court swing, 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, is 46.
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.