There are two doubles wildcards available for the tournament at Queen’s, and one is reserved for a team which includes a former world number one, a Grand Slam champion of the past 10 years or a current top-30 player.
WIlliams has never liked the word retirement, preferring instead to say she was “evolving away” from tennis in 2022.
She lost to Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round of the 2022 US Open, in what the world thought would be her final match.
Williams had reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open earlier that year, and won her last Grand Slam singles title in Melbourne in 2017 at the age of 35.
The Lawn Tennis Association has consistently prioritised British players when determining who should receive wildcards at domestic grass court events.
All four available for the singles draw are very likely to go to British players, but the LTA are likely to feel differently about the doubles given the “exceptional circumstances” of a potential Williams return.
“Never say never, and not wanting to speak of any one individual player, but you will have seen over recent years that those wildcard opportunities are afforded to British players – that is absolutely my fundamental personal belief and philosophy,” LTA chief executive Scott Lloyd said at a briefing for journalists in April.
“There might be exceptional circumstances which might influence a unique wildcard, but otherwise those playing opportunities we want to afford to British players.”
The organisation’s performance director Michael Bourne also hinted commercial opportunities could be a factor.
“It’s also really important to remember that we in the performance team understand that players have to earn that right,” Bourne said.
“We don’t take them for granted. If we didn’t think we had a depth of player where it was right for them to take those opportunities, and there was something else that was good for the business, we would hold our hands up.”
