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The tennis legend retired from the sport in 2022
Brittany MillerTuesday 02 December 2025 21:24 GMTComments
CloseRelated: Serena Williams comforts Dayana Yastremska after 2-set defeat
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Serena Williams has refuted claims she is considering a return to professional tennis.
After The Athletic reported Tuesday that Williams’s name appeared again on the most recent list of players on the International Tennis Integrity Agency's (ITIA) registered testing pool, the former tennis pro was forced to address return rumors.
“Omg yall I’m NOT coming back. This wildfire is crazy-,” Williams posted on X hours after the report ran.
She did not clarify in the post whether or not her name was on the list. Names on the ITIA testing pool must also provide their location on any given day and time while participating in random drug testing.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion announced in a 2022 personal essay published in Vogue that she would be retiring from tennis after that year’s U.S. Open to focus on her family with her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.
Williams retired from tennis to focus on her growing family (Getty Images)“Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family,” she wrote at the time. “I don’t think it’s fair. If I were a guy, I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labour of expanding our family.”
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