Serena Williams and Venus Williams are all set to return to Wimbledon after recently receiving their wildcards to compete in the women’s doubles. On the other hand, Dan Evans was not a wild card for his career’s final tournament, which did not sit right with the fans, who have shared their harsh opinions online.
Serena made a comeback to tennis after almost four years of break, making her first appearance on the court at the doubles tournament at the HSBC Championships. She paired with Victoria Mboko in the doubles; however, they fell short of moving further than the quarterfinal due to the Canadian’s knee injury.
Shortly after this, she and her sister, Venus Williams, received a wildcard for the doubles tournament at Wimbledon. While the tennis community is thrilled with their return to the grass court, fans are furious over Evans’ name missing from the wildcards list, as this will be the final tournament of the Brit’s professional career.
Wimbledon’s post about the Williams sisters.
Responding to the Williams sisters’ wild card entry, one of the fans highlighted Evans’ absence, writing on X:
“What did Dan Evans do to not even deserve a qualifying wild card??”
Calling out the Wimbledon officials, one of the users on X commented:
“Can’t believe Wimbledon haven’t given Dan Evans a wildcard for his final tournament. After all the effort he’s put in representing GB in the Davis Cup. Very very poor.”
Labelling the decision as ‘shameful,’ one of the followers wrote:
“No Dan Evans? His home grand slam and he gets nothing, shameful.”
Considering his retirement after Wimbledon, a fan penned:
“Why haven’t you given a wild card to Dan Evans since it’s his last ever Wimbledon at least the decency you could give him a wild card.”
Along similar lines, another user chimed in:
“No wildcard for Dan Evans!!! He definitely deserves one especially having won at Davis cup and paired with Andy in the Olympics. C’mon get his name added.”
Serena Williams opened up about the possibilities of competing in the singles tournament
Before kickstarting her HSBC Championships campaign, Serena Williams sat for a pre-tournament press conference, where she was fielded with questions surrounding the ins and outs of her comeback. While her first appearance after the return was at the doubles championships, one of the reporters asked her about the possibility of her competing at the singles matches.
Responding to this, she said that she doesn’t want to add more pressure on herself, and revealing what her comeback is really about, she said: (1:26 onwards)
“Yeah, you know, this whole journey is like I’m putting no pressure on myself. I’ve had enough pressure and for me right now, it’s really just about I don’t know. It’s so many elements, you know? It’s really about my kids getting to see me play. I mean, Olympia is a little bit older. Adira is very young, but it’s also still moments like that. It’s also just an athlete is like the best thing that you can be in the highest place. And having an opportunity to still be able to possibly do that one last time is kind of cool and exciting,” said Serena Williams.
“And so there’s a little bit of that, too. but for singles, I can’t say no. Right now, no. I I feel like I probably need to train a little bit more if I want to play singles and we’ll see if I get there and if not that’s not my journey right now.”
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