New Delhi, June 26 -- LONDON - The decision that matters most at Wimbledon this year was made weeks before a ball is struck, in the quiet bureaucratic act of Serena Williams putting her name back into a drug-testing pool. Nobody submits to that, the random calls and the whereabouts forms and the early-morning knocks, to play a few sets of doubles with a sibling. They do it because they intend to compete. On Sunday the intention became official. Williams accepted a wild card into the Wimbledon women's singles draw, and the most decorated player of her era will walk back onto a Grand Slam singles court for the first time since 2022.

The All England Club announced the entry on June 21, eight days before the Championships begin on June 29. I...