Serena Williams admits she ‘didn’t know when and how’ she was going to return to tennis

Serena Williams has admitted she ‘did not know when and how’ she would return to tennis, but she absolutely never retired.

Williams’ then coach expressed frustration before the French Open this year about her inactivity on the WTA Tour, with her herself admitting she went ‘cold turkey’ on tennis after Wimbledon last year.

She is back as a wild card this year to play her first singles tournament since, and she said she never actively considered herself retired during her hiatus

“I didn’t retire,” she told the press at Wimbledon. “I just needed to heal physically, mentally.

“I had no plans, to be honest. I just didn’t know when I would come back. I didn’t know how I would come back.

“Obviously Wimbledon is such a great place to be, and it just kind of worked out.”

Serena Williams tore her hamstring in the first round against Aliaksandra Sasnovich last year before leaving Centre Court in tears.

She, though, says she has tried to turn that into a positive and use it as motivation to return.

“It was a lot of motivation, to be honest. It was always something since the match ended that was always on my mind,”

“So it was a tremendous amount of motivation for that. You never want any match to end like that. It’s really unfortunate.

“But it was definitely something that’s always been on the top of my mind.”

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