Serena Williams has indicated she will play at this year’s Wimbledon in what would be her first match for a year.
The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion has not played since injuring her leg in the first round of last year’s tournament.
American Williams, 40, has won seven Wimbledon singles titles but is currently ranked 1,208.
She posted an image of her trainers on grass, captioning it: “SW and SW19. It’s a date. 2022, see you there.”
Wimbledon begins on 27 June.
Williams also tagged Eastbourne – where there is a WTA event in the week before Wimbledon – in the social media post.
She won the last of her seven Wimbledon singles titles in 2016, but reached the final in 2018 and 2019 after returning from maternity leave.
Williams could potentially compete in either the women’s or mixed doubles at SW19.
She has won the doubles title with elder sister Venus six times and paired up with Andy Murray in the mixed event in 2019.
Williams could have entered Wimbledon using a protected ranking reserved for players who have been sidelined through a long-term injury but did not do so.
The initial batch of wildcards for singles and doubles will be announced on Wednesday
Neither Williams sister was on the Wimbledon entry list when it was released last week.
Williams’ latest attempt to equal Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slams ended in heartbreak on Centre Court last year, when she was forced to retire injured against Aliaksandra Sasnovich after slipping.
The injury kept her out of the US Open and Australian Open that followed.
Her long-time coach Patrick Mouratoglou has started working with 2019 Wimbledon champion Simona Halep, saying in April that he had spoken to the American before taking up the position.
Williams then suggested herself in a social media post that she could return to action at this year’s Wimbledon.
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