Just a day after the All-England Club confirmed Serena Williams and Venus Williams’ doubles reunion with a wildcard entry, fresh speculation has shifted to an even bigger question. The 23-time Grand Slam champion has neither requested a single wildcard nor revealed her plans, keeping everyone guessing at the moment. Now, with one wildcard still available at this year’s Wimbledon, 4-time Grand Slam winner Kim Clijsters has weighed in on whether Serena will make a stunning singles return.

“No, not yet,” Clijsters said in the latest episode of the “Love All” podcast. “I don’t know, maybe? It could be, I didn’t even think about that, to be honest, as a chance yet. Just from some of the videos I’ve seen. Singles is still a very different game than what she’s done so far, I think that might still be a little bit early, to start right away at the Grand Slam.”

The 43-year-old former Belgian pro also explained how she thinks Serena Williams will approach a comeback if she decides to return to singles. 

“I think if she decides to play singles, I think she will maybe play a couple of tournaments and a couple of matches before she plays a big tournament. But you never know, Serena is Serena, and once you’ve been able to play at such a high level, I’m certain that when she gets back onto court, everything will fall into place.”

At the moment, the 44-year-old has been competing only in doubles after her return. She has recently partnered with 19-year-old Victoria Mboko at the Queen’s Club Championships and 29-year-old Karolina Muchova at the Berlin Open.

Her last competitive singles appearance came 4 years ago at the US Open where she lost to Ajla Tomljanović in the third round of the Grand Slam.

However, later in the podcast, Clijsters pointed to the biggest challenge Serena would face if she returned to singles competition. “The biggest thing that is going to be noticeable is the movement; that’s going to be the hardest thing, what everything will be comparing, from what that was like a few years ago to now,” she explained.

“We’ll see. I would love to see it, but I think it might be a little bit too soon to do singles already,” Clijsters, who faced Serena 9 times in their professional H2H match, added.

Even with Clijsters expressing some doubts, speculation around a singles comeback refuses to fade around Serena. However, while the debate continues to grow, Serena has already shared her own thoughts about the possibility of playing singles again.

Serena Williams opens up about potential return to singles match

After her defeat in the Berlin Tennis Open on June 16th, Serena Williams faced the media and was immediately asked about a possible SW19 singles return. One particular reporter pointed out that one single wildcard was still available for the main draw.

The journalist asked whether the 44-year-old would be interested in accepting it, but Serena responded with her trademark humor before carefully avoiding a firm answer to the question. “Oh my gosh, there’s some left? I better get to practice,” Williams added while explaining, “Would you be interested that I took it?”

The reporter however replied that he would love to see it happen. The former Olympic gold medalist then smiled and responded, “Gosh, you think I’m ready for singles?” However, she eventually said, “That’s the question of the hour, right? I don’t know. I don’t know. I wonder why there’s — I don’t know.”

Her response caught plenty of attention because it sounded different from what she had said less than two weeks at the HSBC Championships. “I can’t say yeah, I can’t say no. Right now, no,” she said in the Queen’s press conference. “I feel like I probably need to train a little bit more if I want to play singles. We’ll see if I get there, and if not, that’s not my journey right now.”

For now, the 23-time Grand Slam winner is officially set to compete in doubles. Whether she also chooses to return to the singles court is a decision only she can make in coming days.

Until then, the mystery remains alive in the tennis fraternity. Fans across the tennis world will keep waiting to see if Serena delivers one more unforgettable singles chapter at The Championships.