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Serena Williams will participate in women’s singles at Wimbledon for the first time since 2022, entering the tournament as a wild card. She is also in the doubles event with her sister Venus for the first time since 2016.
The road to returning to professional tennis was long. Williams had to return to the anti-doping pool. When asked about the process on Sunday, the 44-year-old tennis legend called the system “unprofessional” and “unreasonable.”
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Serena Williams of the United States arrives to practice a day before the start of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London on June 28, 2026. (Kin Cheung/Associated Press)
“It’s exhausting. Now they’ve changed the rules. I didn’t know some of the rules. So apparently if you miss a test outside your window, it still counts as missed. I guess I can’t go pick up my kids,” she said. “It’s unprofessional. I hate it. I think it’s necessary, but I think a lot of things, if I want to go places outside my window, I should be able to do that without it counting as a missed test.”
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) requires players to provide their daily “whereabouts” for unannounced testing. It’s a feature that has come under a lot of scrutiny over the past few weeks.
Marketa Vondrousova, 2023 Wimbledon champion, was banned for four years for refusing to submit to a doping test.
Williams called the process “unreasonable.”
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Serena Williams of the United States smiles after a training session at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club ahead of the Wimbledon Championships in London on June 25, 2026. (Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP)
“That was one of the main reasons I didn’t want to go back either, because it’s so hard. I mean, my life is busy, I run a company, I run a venture capital firm, I travel the world. I have kids. It’s like I can be in so many different cities and so many different times,” she said.
The ITIA responded to Williams’ comments.
“If an evaluator cannot communicate with a player during his assigned time, then it may well be a ‘strike,’ and three failures could result in a charge. If an evaluator cannot communicate with a player outside of his assigned time, it is not considered a strike,” the agency said.
“There have been no changes to the location rules in recent years,” the ITIA added. “We understand that the system may seem challenging, but it is there to protect players, not trip them up. If players are unsure or have questions, we would appreciate a conversation with them directly or through their agents.”
Serena Williams of the United States returns during a practice session ahead of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London on June 24, 2026. (Kin Cheung/AP)
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Still, Williams has said she has always been willing to follow the rules.
