Naomi Broady: Serena Williams appears to have a clear goal for her comeback

The 23-time Grand Slam-winning legend re-entered the tennis doping programme at the back end of 2025 and she has been practising hard, according to sources, ahead of her comeback to the tour.

There have been suggestions that Williams will look to play doubles with her sister Venus as part of her comeback plan, with former British player Naomi Broady suggesting she might have a long-term goal in mind.

With Venus still playing on the WTA Tour, Broady floated the idea of the duo teaming up to play on home soil at the Los Angeles Olympics in two years time.

"I think the idea is to play doubles at the Olympics," Broady told Sky Sports. "It will be at home in LA.

"14 Grand Slam doubles titles that Venus and Serena have won together. Imagine winning gold there and that is your goodbye to the sport. It would be a fairytale endin and if that is the plan, it is an early comeback as it's [Olympics] not for a few more years yet."

Former British player Naomi Cavaday spoke to this website about Serena's comeback and she set her targets high.

"It will be quite a spectacle," said Cavaday, speaking exclusively to Tennis365 at a Sky Sports Tennis event in London.

"Whenever, wherever it happens, I mean, if she wants to play tournaments, we'll have her. I'm fascinated by the motivation for it and to how it's going to go because the problem with Serena's record is that anything other than winning Slams will be seen as a disappointment.

"Maybe not as far as a failure, but when she came back from having a kid, I think making the finals was a success. No one saw it as a failure, but, you know, she's here to win Slam. So if she's coming back, everyone's going to be expecting her to be winning Slams, not losing quarters.

"She's in a very different position than her sister Venus, who's clearly just playing because she enjoys it and doesn't really worry that she's losing in the first round a lot. But for Serena, I don't know, I don't know where this ends up if she loses early and she's not a threat and she's getting chewed up by players in the top 10.

"If that happens, it's gonna be rough for her, but my expectations of what she can achieve are very high.

"I think her level walks to top 10, even after so long away and at her age. She might not necessarily get into the top 10 of the rankings as she probably won't play enough tournaments, but her level could be right there with top players quickly.

"I think you stick her against somebody ranked 20, I don't think it'll be a problem. She'll have the occasional difficulty, I'm sure, along the way but outside of Aryna Sabalenka and [Elena] Rybakina, she will be fancy her chances.

"Coco Gauff is having a few problems, there is a lot of talk and around the issues in Iga Swiatek's team and that's gonna be going on throughout the whole season. Then I look at players like [Jasmine] Paolini and I think Serena would be able to beat players like that."

Williams' comeback date has yet to be confirmed, but there is a growing expectation that she will try and play at Wimbledon this summer. 

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