A word to describe Serena Williams‘ singles return at Wimbledon would be unfortunate. Not only did she suffer a 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 defeat to Maya Joint despite putting in a strong effort, she also sustained a knee injury that kept her out of action for over a month. But this wasn’t like a typical knee injury for her, and the recovery process wasn’t simple. It very well could have affected her return at the Cincinnati Masters. Reflecting on the setback, Serena described it as an episode that she wouldn’t want to experience again.

“That was a little traumatic experience for me,” she said during a press conference in Cincinnati. “Took me like two hours to leave the locker room that night, and it’s been a long recovery, which is something I never thought I’d say because I never thought I’d be here, sitting, talking to you all again. But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. So, it’s good.”

Now it’s not like this was the first knee injury that Serena suffered in her career. Back in 2003, she had suffered an injury on his left knee, and it required surgery to heal. The knee problems continued for years and even ruined her 2006 season, resulting in her playing just four tournaments. But Serena was still in her 20s at the time, so she was able to recover comfortably from even a serious setback.

Now she is well into her 40s, and her body can’t recover as quickly as before. After playing the match against Joint, four syringes were used to take out fluid from Serena’s knee. The veteran also shared a video where she was seen wearing a bandage on her left knee.

“The photo of the syringes shows the fluid they drained from my knee after my singles match…yikes,” Serena wrote in an Instagram post. “The good news is my knee shouldn’t swell or collect that much fluid again. The bad news is that, as hard as I tried, I just wasn’t able to get it ready for doubles.”

Though the injury didn’t appear to be serious at first, it eventually forced Serena to pull out of the women’s doubles event, where she was supposed to team up with her sister, Venus Williams. Notably, the Wimbledon organizers provided her with as much time as they could to recover and even delayed the doubles match for two days. But she eventually couldn’t do so and had to withdraw.

Serena didn’t participate in the opening few tournaments of the hard-court season. This includes the Citi Open and the National Bank Open. She finally returned to action at the Cincinnati Masters, where she played doubles alongside Venus for the first time since the 2022 US Open. But the result wasn’t something that they would have hoped for.

Serena and Venus suffer first-round exit at the Cincinnati Masters

The Williams sisters were drawn against Peyton Stearns and Marta Kostyuk in the first round. Despite giving a good fight, they ultimately succumbed to a 6-2, 1-6, 10-8 defeat. This is now Serena’s second consecutive defeat in doubles. She had previously played alongside Karolina Muchova at the Berlin Open, but the duo had lost to Erin Routliffe and Giuliana Olmos in the first round.

These aren’t good signs for the 44-year-old, especially with the US Open around the corner. But surprisingly, her participation in the Grand Slam still isn’t confirmed. The USTA has so far released seven of the eight wildcards for the women’s singles draw, but Serena’s name isn’t present on the list.

Moreover, she hasn’t entered the mixed doubles event either, which is set to be played during the Fan Week. The wildcards for the women’s doubles draw are yet to be announced, so Serena’s participation at the US Open pretty much hangs in the balance.

It is very much possible that she gets the final singles wildcard at Flushing Meadows. The same had happened at Wimbledon, where Serena was handed the final remaining wildcard for the singles draw. If she does come calling to the US Open organizers, it is highly unlikely that they would deny her request, as her appearance will definitely increase the hype around the singles draw.