The excitement for Serena Williams’s wildcard entry into the women’s singles draw at Wimbledon knows no bounds for tennis fans. Despite the buzz, former ATP pro Greg Rusedski gave everyone a blunt reality check.

“At 44 years of age its much more difficult,” he said on his podcast Off Court with Greg Rusedski. “You have to win seven matches in two weeks. She doesn’t even have a warm-up tournament. Doubles, to be quite frank, is not a singles warm-up; it’s totally different.”

While Rusedski does believe that Serena isn’t well-prepared for her upcoming singles campaign at the SW19, he still stressed that underestimating her wouldn’t be a wise choice.

“With Serena you never know what to expect. We knew about the wild card for doubles, but looking at her training at Wimbledon in the last week she seemed focused exclusively on singles. I can’t make predictions. But if she has trained for six months; it means that she is taking it very seriously,” he added.

While Serena may have only played doubles since making her return a few weeks ago, it cannot be denied that grass remains Serena’s preferred surface. She has a win rate of 87% on the surface was considered as one of the best grass-court players of her generation. So, she still has the potential to rack up positive results at the Grand Slam.

Another thing that cannot be ignored is Serena’s sensational singles record at Wimbledon. She currently boasts a win-loss record of 98-14 and has won the coveted SW19 title on seven occasions.

The All England Club had already handed seven out of the eight wildcards for the women’s singles draw in the initial list itself, but they had deliberately kept the eighth spot open until Serena made her final decision. And their patience eventually paid off as Serena officially announced her singles return on Monday.

It wasn’t any surprise that Serena was handed the wildcard for Wimbledon. The All England Club is known to hand wildcards to former champions and recognizable names, who can bring an increase in the tournament’s viewership and can attract big crowds even if their ranking has dropped significantly.

But the singles draw won’t be Serena’s only concern at Wimbledon, as she will also be playing doubles alongside her sister, Venus Williams. This will be the first time since 2016 that the Williams sisters will be teaming up at the SW19. The two have won the doubles title on six occasions and have only recorded a total of three losses in the tournament so far.

As Serena prepares to make her first Grand Slam appearance after the long four-year hiatus, she has opted to train with a method that she has barely used in her career.

Serena Williams uses unusual training method to prepare

Serena had arrived at the All England Club a few days ago to train for her upcoming campaign at the SW19. However, in her practice session, she was spotted hitting alongside Maria Sakkari.

For the majority of Williams’ glorious career, she wasn’t known to practice with other players on the tour. She used to practice only with her coaching team and frequently used male hitting partners. Hence, this change in her preparation comes as a big change to many. Although during the start of her comeback talks, she was also spotted hitting with Alycia Parks, which means that this change is not specific to Wimbledon.

She comes with a star-studded and familiar coaching team by her side, and she was seen training with her coach, Rennae Stubbs, and hitting partner David Quayle while she was preparing for her recent doubles campaigns at the Queen’s Club and Berlin.