A controversy involving Serena Williams and her alleged use of GLP-1 medications has sparked criticism after her wildcard entry at Wimbledon. As discussions around the tennis legend took place online, a journalist pointed out the double standards in sports, referring to the Rafael Nadal and Alexander Zverev episodes.
Williams, who recently returned to tennis after retiring for almost four years, her GLP-1 medication controversy stems from her public admission of using the weight-loss drug in August 2025, when she announced that she had lost over 31 pounds using the GLP-1 therapy. Shortly after this, she became the official brand ambassador for the Telehealth platform Ro.
This controversy intensified in February 2026, during the Super Bowl, where the American starred in a commercial. It featured her using an injection pen and ordering medication, which drew sharp criticism from fans and public health experts. The criticism has resurfaced after she recently received her Wimbledon doubles wildcard and is also set to team up with her sister, Venus Williams.
While she is being judged by the fans online, a journalist, Benoit Maylin, highlighted the double standards in sports by recalling Zverev’s 40 injections, which he took for managing his chronic back issues so that he could play pain-free, and Nadal’s anaesthetized foot during the 2022 French Open as he suffered from pain due to his rare degenerative condition called Muller-Weiss syndrome in a column for Winamax’s ‘Sans Filet’ program.
“Serena is back on Ozempic (a weight-loss drug). Outrageous! What about Zverev’s 40 injections and Rafa’s anesthetized foot? Tennis, like all other high-level sports, is on life support. And I should point out that Serena’s medications aren’t on the list of banned substances. So what do we do? Do we kick out everyone who takes a pill? But if we do that, there’s no more sport!” said the journalist backing Serena Williams.
“I don’t really care”- When Serena Williams responded to criticism surrounding her using the GLP-1 medication
In August 2025, Serena Williams sat for an interview with Vogue, where she weighed in on the criticism she received after she announced her association with GLP-1 medication. Sharing her take on this and responding to the criticism, she said:
“I’ve heard negative comments, along with a tremendous amount of positive comments, about my body my entire life. For lack of a better way to say it, I don’t really care what people are saying about my body anymore. But what is important to me is transparency,” said Serena Williams.
Talking about her journey, she added:
“But it was so hard after I had [my first daughter] Olympia. I was literally on the court every day, doing nothing else. My whole life is being in the gym, working out, running, training, HIIT training, dancing, every single thing you can think of. I would always get to a certain point on the scale, but I could never get below that. That’s when I decided that it was time to try something different and got on the GLP-1 with Ro.”
Following her comeback, Serena Williams’ first appearance on court was at the HSBC Championships doubles, where she teamed up with Victoria Mboko.
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