Serena Williams will return to Wimbledon for the first time since 2022 after she was given a wildcard into the women's doubles with her sister Venus.
The return of the seven-time champion - with another six titles in the women's doubles with Venus - promises to be one of the stories of the Championships.
There were rumours that Williams was considering testing herself in the singles but that always seemed unlikely, and was confirmed when the All England Club announced their first tranche of wildcards on Tuesday morning.
The 44-year-old began her comeback to tennis - four years after her last professional match - at the Queen's Club's HSBC Championships, where she won a round before being forced out by an injury to her partner Victoria Mboko. She is playing this week in Berlin with Czech Karolina Muchova.
After the All England Club’s 20 per cent bump in prize money, all recipients of singles wildcards this year will receive a minimum of £80,000 - a major windfall for lower-ranked players.
In the men's, of the six of the eight wildcards announced there was surprisingly none for Dan Evans in what will be his final event in professional tennis. The 36-year-old announced his retirement last week, saying he would play at Queen's and Wimbledon before hanging up the racket.
Serena Williams has been given a Wimbledon wildcard to play in the doubles
He was left 'perplexed' when Queen's denied him a pass into the main draw - he then lost in qualifying - and Wimbledon has followed suit.
There are two more places to be announced but it seems as though Evans will have to settle for a spot in qualifying and the men's doubles with former junior Wimbledon champion Henry Searle.
It is highly controversial for Wimbledon to deny a spot to a player who has done so much for the game in this country.
There were also men's singles wildcards for British players Jacob Fearnley, Arthur Fery, Jack Pinnington Jones and Toby Samuel.
Stan Wawrinka, in his final season, received one but not Gael Monfils, who is also retiring this year.
Former semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov has been invited in, too, after he suffered a horrendous pectoral injury when leading eventual champion Jannik Sinner last year.
In the women's singles, shock French Open finalist Maja Chwalinksa is in, which is reasonable since the rankings cutoff for direct entry to Wimbledon was taken before that run zoomed her up to 21st in the world.
Serena and sister Venus are pictured at a Netflix show together last month
The other six women's singles wildcards (one has been held back) went to Brits: old hands Harriet Dart and Katie Swan, who has enjoyed something of a renaissance after years in the wilderness; newcomer Alicia Dudeney, 23, who has gone from outside the world’s top 1000 this time last year into the top 250; and the promising teenage trio of Hannah Klugman (17), Mimi Xu (18) and Mika Stojsavljevic (17).
The most eye-catching wildcard pairing in the men's doubles is Nick Kyrgios with fellow maverick Alexander Bublik.
The remaining three wildcards will be announced in due course.
