Serena Williams poured cold water on the wildfire that started following the appearance of her name on the list of players registered for the drug testing pool, but the flames are still burning.<\/p>\n
On the back of announcing she is \u201cevolving away from tennis\u201d, the tennis great played her last match in September 2022 and, as per official protocol, her name was added to the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) retired list.<\/p>\n
Although the American\u2019s name still appears on the retired list, she was recently added to the ITIA\u2019s International Registered Testing Pool (IRTP)<\/a> with many believing it signalled her intention to return to tennis.<\/p>\n The sport\u2019s registered drug testing pool requires individuals to state their whereabouts at any given time, every day, and participate in random testing and players can return to official tournaments once they have made themselves available for out-of-competition testing for at least six months.<\/p>\n News of the 23-time Grand Slam winner\u2019s name on the IRTP set off a wildfire about a possible return as early as April 2026, but the former world No 1 quickly took to social media to deny the claims.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m NOT coming back. This wildfire is crazy,\u201d Williams<\/a> wrote on X.<\/p>\n So that\u2019s the end of that?<\/p>\n Not so quickly as many journalists questioned her decision to add her name to the list with Ben Rothenberg asking: \u201cThen why did you apply to reenter the testing pool?\u201d<\/p>\n Then why did you apply to reenter the testing pool?<\/p>\n \u2014 Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) December 2, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n And Serena Williams fans decided to have some fun with their replies on social media and we have decided to select some of the good ones.<\/p>\n Venus Williams shares stunning photos as she confims engagement date with Andrea Preti<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n 10 most lucrative WTA Tour prize money seasons: Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Serena Williams star<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Perhaps one of the best memes was on Reddit as one reader went down the Formula 1 road and used Oscar Piastri\u2019s famous 2022 tweet to deny claims by Alpine F1 that he would drive for them in the 2023 season. He promptly went on to sign for McLaren.<\/p>\n The user wrote: \u201cI understand that, without my agreement, Ben Rothenberg has put out a press release late this afternoon that I am preparing a return to tennis next year. This is wrong and I will not be coming back to tennis in 2026. I will not be coming back to tennis next year.\u201d<\/p>\n Comment<\/a> Another Reddit user said: \u201cShe\u2019s gonna quote tweet this in 6 months when the wimbledon doubles wild cards are released being like \u2018just kidding \u2019 you heard it here first.\u201d<\/p>\n A sensible theory: \u201cMy theory is she wants to be able to compete if she feels like it later but doesn\u2019t have firm plans right now. i wouldn\u2019t be surprised if she wanted to do something at the USO but couldn\u2019t because she didn\u2019t meet this requirement.\u201d<\/p>\n You just wait\u2026\u201dIdk I feel like she didn\u2019t intend for everyone to figure it out this early and wants to throw everyone off the scent until the official announcement. It\u2019s just too weird for her to add herself back to testing if she didn\u2019t have any modicum of interest in returning. I feel like maybe she\u2019s trying to keep her options open in case she does decide to make a push for LA 2028 with Venus, but hasn\u2019t decided for sure that she\u2019s going to do it yet.\u201d<\/p>\n Over on X one fan wrote: \u201cSerena, girl. This is what people say when they are indeed coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n Another stated: \u201cWait hold up\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cI cracked the code.<\/p>\n \u201cIs that because \u201cWE\u201d are coming back instead, as in you and V for doubles?!!<\/p>\n \u201cI see you girl. \u201d<\/p>\n There was also this\u2026 \u201cWell i simply don\u2019t believe that. see you back on the court soon.\u201d<\/p>\n Someone else added: \u201c\u2026and it\u2019s not up to you, WeTheSerenaFans have spoken. Breaking Serena will play one last Wimbledon \u201d<\/p>\n And one of the famous ones: \u201cSo you\u2019re saying there\u2019s a chance\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Another added: \u201cThis is the biggest heartbreak since Nadal announced his retirement. \u201c<\/p>\n The post Serena Williams comeback rumours: The best responses after tennis great puts out wildfire<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Serena Williams poured cold water on the wildfire that started following the appearance of her name on the list of players registered for the drug testing pool, but the flames are still burning. On the back of announcing she is \u201cevolving away from tennis\u201d, the tennis great played her last match in September 2022 and, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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