A Grand Slam-winning coach has delivered a scathing verdict on Serena Williams’ return to Wimbledon and said the American legend is “not a serious tennis player.”
Williams made her comeback earlier this month and competed in doubles at the grass-court WTA 500 events at Queen’s Club and in Berlin.
The 44-year-old, who has not played a singles match since the 2022 US Open, was given a main draw singles wildcard for Wimbledon.
The 23-time major singles champion will face world No 87 Maya Joint on Centre Court in the opening round at the All England Club on Tuesday.
Calvin Betton — who has coached Henry Patten and Harri Heliovaara to Grand Slam doubles titles — criticised Wimbledon’s decision to give Williams a wildcard while speaking on the Tennis Unfiltered podcast.
“What if one of the tournaments now says we would love to have Roger Federer playing and are willing to pay him millions? What if another tournament does the same with Rafael Nadal? It could get a bit silly,” said Betton.
“If she was coming back and saying, ‘I’m having a run at this, my intention is to get back to the top of the rankings and I want to see how well I can do’, then I would be much more sympathetic to it and I would even back it.
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“But we’re giving a wildcard to someone who’s not seriously trying to compete at tennis anymore and instead it’s purely for promotional reasons.
“This is my biggest problem with it. We keep hearing that she wants to come back and win, but she doesn’t want to win enough to stay around.
“I suspect this return will just be for Wimbledon, the US Open and a couple of the Masters events, that’s it.
“And that’s where I have a problem because this is not a serious tennis professional and we’re giving them wildcards into the Wimbledon draw.”
Betton, who was speaking before the schedule for Tuesday was confirmed, had some strong words about the prospect of Williams’ match being picked for Centre Court.
“I think they need to put her on Court Two or something, I don’t think you can put her on Centre, there’s just too many big names. She’s not a serious tennis player, she’s a retired tennis player,” said Betton.
“If so you might have to bump someone like Elena Rybakina off to Court Two, a former winner and the world number two.
“I don’t think you can put someone on Centre Court who hasn’t played a singles tennis match in four years and is 44 years old.
“It would be a disgrace. It would be a disgrace if they do. That tournament can’t be taken seriously if that happens.
“She probably will play on Centre Court purely for a safety thing, but I don’t think she should be and I don’t think it’s reasonable to the other players.”
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