Serena Williams has said her professional tennis return at the age of 44 is about “just having fun,” insisting winning is “not important” after earning 23 grand slam singles titles during a hugely successful career.

Williams will play doubles alongside the Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko at Queen’s Club in her first competitive outing since stepping away from tennis in 2022. Although she has committed to playing doubles in Berlin afterwards, her future beyond that remains uncertain. Meetings to determine the first batch of Wimbledon wildcards begin soon but when asked whether she intends to return to singles competition, Williams said: “I can’t say yeah, I can’t say no. Right now, no.”

On her motivation for returning to elite sport after so long on the sidelines, Williams, who gave birth to daughters in 2017 and 2023, said: “I don’t need to win. I’ve won more than most people have in their whole lives, so for me it’s not important. It’s important that I keep reminding myself of that because I don’t have anything to prove, I don’t have anything to lose and everything here is just a gain.

“This whole journey is like I’m putting no pressure on myself. It’s really about my kids getting to see me play. I mean, Olympia [aged eight] is a little bit older, Adira [aged two] is very young, but it’s also still moments like that.”

Williams added: “An athlete is the best thing that you can be in the highest place, and having an opportunity to still be able to possibly do that one last time is kind of cool and exciting, so there’s a little bit of that too. 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. It’s summer, the kids aren’t in school, so it’s a perfect time to get out there, have fun and see what happens.”

Williams practised with the 19-year-old Mboko, the world No 9 in singles, on Sunday morning before their first-round doubles match against the third seeds, Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe, which is expected to take place on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Revealing she selected Mboko because the teenager “reminded me a lot of myself”, Williams said: “I remember seeing her play in Montreal [where Mboko won the 2025 Canadian Open]. I was impressed with her attitude, and what I liked the most about her was that the next time she played she still kept winning. Sometimes you win one and then have a little bit of a low, which is normal, and that’s OK as well. But I loved how she had this drive.”

Their union will be particularly memorable for rising star Mboko, who was only 10 when Williams won her last grand slam. “Growing up, Serena has always been my idol,” said the Canadian. “It was really hard not to like her because she won every tournament she played. So she was just an easy idol for me.

“Seeing someone on TV versus actually talking to them in person and having conversations, of course, it’s very different. I think she’s really nice and she’s very personable, very relatable. And I think she’s really funny. So I’ve found a lot of comfort with her.”

As then reigning US Open champion, Emma Raducanu remains one of the last players to face Williams on court, thrashing her 6-4, 6-0 in the penultimate tournament of the American’s career when they met in the first round of the 2022 Cincinnati Open. “I remember that match,” said Raducanu on Sunday. “I was super nervous before playing her because it was just announced that she was stopping.

“It’s really great to see her back. I think it’s an amazing inspiration and for all of us to see her around is a really cool thing. She’s the greatest female tennis player of all time. It’s just amazing to have her part of the tour again.”

Raducanu has contended with a myriad of physical setbacks in subsequent years, most recently exiting the French Open first round in only her second match since mid-March after battling a post-viral illness. That defeat drew her to tears in the post-match press conference but she was back in good spirits in west London before a return to action. “It was a tough match for me,” Raducanu reflected on that French Open outing. “I think afterwards I found the next day pretty tough and I knew the best thing for me to do was to try and get back on the court straight away to just nip it in the bud.

“I got practising pretty soon after and I took a long time away from competing. It did teach me a few things that I can hopefully take into the grass season. Of course, I haven’t had so many matches leading up to it. But I’ve been doing what I can day to day. That’s all I can really ask of myself and keep going.”