Serena Williams WILL play at Eastbourne tennis week

Serena Williams at Eastbourne 11 years ago / Picture: Getty

Serena Williams has been confirmed in the line-up for Eastbourne's week of international tennis.

The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion has not played since injuring her leg in the first round of last year's Wimbledon but yesterday put an image of her trainers on grass on Instagram, captioning it: "SW and SW19. It's a date. 2022, see you there." She also tagged Eastbourne - where the WTA event takes place from Saturday - in the social media post.

It was later confirmed she would team up with Ons Jabeur to play the doubles at Eastbourne - although is unlikely to appear before Tuesday.

Williams, 40, will then make her return to Grand Slam tennis at Wimbledon after being given a wildcard entry to the singles.

There's also talk that her sister, 41-year-old Venus Williams, could be at Wimbledon too.

Serena won the last of her Wimbledon titles in 2016, but reached the final in 2018 and 2019 after returning from maternity leave. She last won a Grand Slam singles title at the 2017 Australian Open.

Williams has played and proved a big draw at Eastbourne before and her possible involvement this year comes amid huge interest over who will play, with US Open champion and British No1 Emma Raducanu lining up the Sussex tournament as a comeback event from an side injury she suffered last week.

All you need to know about Eastbourne Tennis 2022.