A little more than a month to go before the last Grand Slam of 2025 takes us to Flushing Meadows. It’s not like we needed more excitement to get hyped up. Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka will join America’s very own Coco Gauff as the favorites. But there’s the strong US contingent of Madison Keys, Emma Navarro, Jessica Pegula, and the likes who will throw down the gauntlet at home. But wait! What if one more name in the mix can turn all the equations upside down? Yeah, Serena Williams can do that.

Is it really happening? Is the 23-time singles Grand Slam Champion coming back to tennis? We need to temper our hopes. Sure, we want to see that. We want the 6-time US Open Champion in the 2025 main draw. And she does look fit and is hitting the balls well in the recent Instagram reel she shared on July 18. The post had been up for less than 30 minutes, and it had almost 200k views and 1000 comments. The Internet has given its verdict. Tennis wants the Queen back.

A cheeky caption to the post – “Still Serena” as Dr. Dre’s Still D.R.E. sets the vibe full-on. Oh, she is teasing us, isn’t she? She knows we know – at 43 years old, if anybody can, it’s Serena Williams. Just 3 years ago, she was playing in front of a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium and taking down Number 2 seed Anett Kontaveit. And the way she has kept her fitness levels up even after retirement, it only shows she is a natural athlete.

She walked away from tennis playing her last Major in the US, her home. How poetic would it be if she made her unprecedented comeback in the same Grand Slam. We ain’t saying it would be a stroll. With power hitters like Sabalenka and Swiatek at their prime, it will be a challenge. But mind you, a 39-year-old Serena Williams conquered Sabalenka in the 2021 Australian Open. And years later, in 2025, the Belarusian shared how it was not just power but craft that got Williams that win.

Retirement has been a busy affair for Serena Williams

Walking away from tennis has meant starting a new exciting chapter in her life. The elder of the Williams sisters is juggling motherhood and entrepreneurship and a latest new venture as an influencer. But she’s not doing it alone. She’s got help. Namely, Olympia and Adira, her 2 daughters. She’s flaunting fitness routines and abs, and a whole lot of motherly touch for her 2 little angles, for whom she walked away from tennis.

Serena Williams has embraced motherhood with open arms, and it’s been a priority ever since Olympia came into this world. But Williams also knows it’s always a choice, between being a mother and a Grand Slam Champion. “My whole life I’ve had to kind of weigh, like, ‘If I wanna win a championship, well what is that going to cost me?’” She said to People.com in April 2025.  “It’s going to cost me time with my family, it’s going to cost me friends, it’s going to cost me relationships.”

By 2022, she had already started to run the steering wheel away from tennis. It was about starting a new journey that allowed her to be the best mother. And the confession came in the September edition of Vogue magazine. “I’ve been reluctant to admit to myself or anyone else that I have to move on from playing tennis,” her words read. “It’s like it’s not real until you say it out loud. It comes up, I get an uncomfortable lump in my throat and I start to cry.”

In the same month, the icon would draw curtains on her illustrious career. Her emotional farewell to tennis means the sport will always be a part of who she is. If Serena Williams at all makes a comeback to competitive tennis, it will be a privilege for the fans.