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Serena Williams on July 11, 2024 in Hollywood, Calif.Natasha DyeTue, December 2, 2025 at 9:56 PM UTC·3 min readNEED TO KNOW
Serena Williams has shut down speculation that she's considering a return to tennis after three years away from the sport
Williams said, "Omg yall I'm NOT coming back," in a post on X, adding, "This wildfire is crazy," after reports came out she had requested to reenter the player testing pool
A spokesperson for the ITIA told The Athletic he does "not know" if Williams is returning to the sport or if she's "just giving herself the option"
Serena Williams is shutting down speculation that she's returning to tennis.
After The Athletic reported that Williams, 44, has requested to reenter the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA)'s International Registered Testing Pool — a requirement for active players for drug testing — which had fans thinking she was eyeing a return to the sport, the tennis superstar took to X to set the record straight.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"Omg yall I’m NOT coming back. This wildfire is crazy-," Williams wrote in a post on X on Tuesday, Dec. 2.
Fans expressed their disappointment in the replies to Williams' post, with one writing, "Now I got to delete my celebration tweets!" and another telling Williams, "You got our hopes up there for a minute."
NCR Tennis podcast host Ben Rothenberg bluntly replied, asking, "Then why did you apply to reenter the testing pool?"
"Maybe she’s thinking about playing doubles with Venus bc Venus is retiring this year?," one fan suggested, before another pointed out that playing with Venus, 45, would still qualify as a comeback to tennis.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"The wildfire is a reflection of how much people miss you," said another user.
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Serena Williams on Jan, 23, 2017 in AustraliaIn 2022, Williams played her final competitive match at the US Open, but was very careful about saying she was "not retired" at the time. "The chances of me returning are very high," she told The San Francisco Standard that year. "You can come to my house and [see], I have a court."
In an August 2022 essay for Vogue, Williams said she "never liked the word retirement" and prefers to see herself as in a "transition" away from the sport. "I want to be sensitive about how I use that word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people. Maybe the best word to describe what I'm up to is evolution," she wrote.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdrian Bassett, an ITIA spokesperson, told The Athletic on Dec. 2 that Williams' reentering the testing pool doesn't guarantee a return for the 23-time Grand Slam champion. Bassett said he does "not know if this mean she is coming back" or if Williams is "just giving herself the option" for a return.
"All I can say is she’s back in the pool and therefore subject to whereabouts," Bassett said, per The Athletic.
Read the original article on People
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