Tennis great Serena Williams has been handed a doubles wildcard alongside her sister Venus for Wimbledon, which begins on June 29.
Serena - winner of 23 Grand Slam singles titles - played her first match since 2022 last week in the , winning alongside Victoria Mboko before the Canadian was forced to withdraw after she injured her knee in a singles match.
Serena, 44, has won seven Wimbledon singles titles and six doubles titles alongside older sister Venus, winning their last title on their most recent appearance together a decade ago.
After nearly four years away, Serena continued her comeback in Berlin - live on Your Site Tennis.
The American great partners world No 10 Karolina Muchova in the women's doubles against Giuliana Olmos and Erin Routliffe at the Steffi Graf Stadion.
Serena could still be handed a singles entry into the main draw with one final WTA wild card yet to be announced.
Dan Evans, who ahead of his retirement, will play doubles alongside 2023 Wimbledon boys' singles champion Henry Searle.
Nick Kyrgios, the 2022 singles' finalist, will play alongside Alexander Bublik.
Former Wimbledon champion Marian Bartoli, speaking on Your Site:
"It is so difficult [to return at that age], with training, it's so hard for the body, and especially for Serena with two pregnancies.
"Playing in front of her children gave her so much strength. We saw it at Queen's - she played brilliantly in her first doubles match with Victoria Mboko. She got extremely unlucky to not continue playing at the tournament.
"Venus has been much more on the court, playing singles last year, so she's not as rusty - but for Serena, serving out the way she did in that match - she rolled back the years.
"Absolutely thrilled to see her back on the court."
Maja Chwalinska has been rewarded after her exceptional run at the French Open, where she reached the final after coming through qualifying.
The Pole is currently ranked world No 21 - 93 spots ahead of the No 114 ranking she began the French Open with - will become the first wildcard in history to be seeded at Wimbledon.
Among those receiving a main draw wildcard in the men's singles are three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka, who is set to retire at the end of the season, and former Wimbledon semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov.
Former British No 1 Jack Draper, who is currently ranked 158 in the live rankings, .
Draper, who recently included Andy Murray in his new-look coaching set-up for the grass-court season, is set to make his return at Eastbourne, which ends two days before play will get under way at Wimbledon.
The former world No 4 has not played since mid-April, with his return from an eight-month arm injury hampered by a succession of withdrawals.
"[My] recovery is going in the right direction, but I'm going to give myself one more week and aim to return at Eastbourne," Draper said in a statement.
Draper, who does not have a protected ranking, may have to rely on a wildcard into the US Open, otherwise he will have to go through qualifying in order to reach the main draw at Flushing Meadows later this year from August 30 - September 13 - live on Your Site.
Judy Murray said Serena played at an "incredibly high level" at Queen's and was impressed with her performance after nearly four years away from professional tennis.
"I'm not sure that anybody expected her to come back when she retired, I think it was back in 2022," she told Your Site.
"She has her two children now, but she's been playing a load; she's obviously got herself into really good shape, fit, ready to compete again.
"I'm guessing she probably missed it a lot, as well.
"I saw a clip where she was saying that it was really important to her that her kids saw her playing, so they knew who she was and what she did.
"I absolutely loved the fact that her husband and her kids were courtside and greeted her when she came off.
"But she showed that she's still playing at a remarkably high level, playing doubles with Victoria Mboko at the WTA event in Queen's, and winning her first match!
"And huge crowd support there, and huge fan base behind her, it's great, another mum coming back into the game successfully, brilliant."
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