Latest Serena Williams News Amid Potential Return to Tennis After 2022 Retirement

Serena Williams is no longer on the International Tennis Integrity Agency's list of retired players and has a reinstatement date of Feb. 22, another sign that the tennis legend is indeed eyeing a comeback to the sport.

That could leave her eligible for this year's ATP-WTA 1000 Indian Wells, as tennis reporter Ben Rothenberg noted, who added that her reinstatement date "also confirms a bit of the reporting I had on Bounces back in December: Serena applied for reinstatement in August after inquiring about the possibility of playing last year's U.S. Open, which was not possible at the time due to her self-removal three years earlier from the testing pool."

Williams, 44, last played at the 2022 U.S. Open, where she bowed out in the third round. It was one of three tournaments she played that season, including Wimbledon.

She is widely considered the greatest women's player of all time, winning 23 Grand Slam titles, and added 14 Grand Slam titles in doubles.

Her return to tennis would obviously be an enormous story, though she denied a comeback was in the works back in December:

Nearly two months later, however, she wasn't quite so adamant about not returning when questioned on The Today Show:

Alycia Parks also (perhaps inadvertently) further fueled the potential comeback talk when she revealed she's practiced with Williams.

"I actually practiced with her last Monday," she told Haresh Ramchandani of Tennis Majors. "And I messaged her yesterday. She's definitely a good mentor to me and she's helped me a lot, especially in my practices. ... She is in great shape. So I think she would kill it on Tour."

The buzz on a potential Williams return only continues to grow, in other words.