Serena Williams and Venus Williams are both back in the fold during this grass court season and they are both hoping to receive a Wimbledon wildcard.
Serena Williams returned at Queen’s to play doubles with Victoria Mboko and the pair won the American’s first match in nearly four years against Erin Routliffe and Nicole Melichar-Martinez.
Their partnership was curtailed by Mboko’s injury – which will also keep her out of Wimbledon – but Serena is set to play doubles again in Berlin.
She will partner with Karolina Muchova as she looks to continue her comeback and many are expecting her to receive a Wimbledon wildcard.
Venus Williams, meanwhile, has played sporadically throughout the year, alongside the likes of Katie Boulter and Leylah Fernandez, and she will return to doubles action at Bad Homburg.
Venus will play alongside Alexandra Eala at the German event and she will likely be looking for a Wimbledon singles wildcard at the Grand Slam.
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They both could be in luck for the singles draw as Britain’s Fran Jones will no longer be in need of a wildcard, freeing up another entrant.
Jones has earned her way into the main draw direct Wimbledon as Veronika Kudermetova has withdrawn from the Grand Slam with an ongoing illness.
She will joins Emma Raducanu and Boulter as direct entrants in the main draw, meaning she will not take away one of the eight wildcards available.
That could be monumental for some of the non-British players who will be hoping to receive a wildcard at this year’s event.
The likes of Harriet Dart, Katie Swan, Alicia Dudeney, Mika Stojsavljevic, and Mingge Xu all currently sit inside the top 300 and will be hoping for a wildcard, but that would still leave three names.
If Serena and Venus are both angling for a wildcard for the singles draw at Wimbledon, it’s looking increasingly likely that they will receive one.
It could also open up the avenue for Maja Chwalińska to receive a wildcard, which would be a very nice reward for the Polish star who reached the Roland Garros final.
The Pole is up to World No. 21 in the WTA Tour rankings due to her exploits in Paris, but she was well outside the top 100 when the entry list was crafted for Wimbledon.
The Grand Slam could be about to buck tradition, as they have often handout wildcards exclusively to British players in recent years. Petra Kvitova was the only non-British star to receive a wildcard at last year’s event and that was part of her retirement year.
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