Serena Williams is now eligible to return to tennis, having spent the past six months in the International Tennis Integrity Agency's anti-doping testing pool. The 23-time grand slam singles champion, 44, has not officially announced a comeback, but the move has intensified speculation that she may be preparing to play again.
In 2022, Williams said she was 'evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me' rather than retiring. She later gave birth to her second daughter, Adira River Ohanian, in 2023. Her sister Venus Williams, meanwhile, continues to compete, falling just short of becoming the oldest woman to win a grand slam singles match at the Australian Open last month.
American player Alycia Parks recently revealed that she had practiced with Williams, describing her as being 'in great shape' and predicting she 'would kill it on tour.' However, any potential comeback would occur against the backdrop of Williams's prominent role as a promoter and user of injectable weight-loss drugs.
Williams is a spokesperson for the healthcare provider Ro and starred in a Super Bowl commercial documenting how she lost 34 lbs in a year using GLP-1 drugs. She has described the injections as 'another tool to support my health journey,' insisting they are 'not a shortcut' or 'a copout.' Her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, is an early investor in Ro and sits on its board.
Throughout her career, Williams has been a symbol of body positivity, saying: 'I love how I look. I am a full woman and I'm strong, and I'm powerful, and I'm beautiful at the same time.' Nevertheless, her endorsement of expensive weight-loss drugs has left some supporters feeling conflicted, given that she and her husband stand to gain financially from increased exposure of their investment.
The World Anti-Doping Agency has added GLP-1 drugs to its monitoring programme and is gathering evidence on whether they could be abused by athletes to gain an unfair advantage.
