Can Serena Williams beat younger tennis players?

塞琳娜·威廉姆斯能否击败年轻网球运动员?

What in the World

2026-06-03

9 分钟

单集简介 ...

Serena Williams is making a comeback to tennis at 44 years of age. She is one of the greatest players of all time. She’s won 23 Grand Slam titles - the second highest tally by a woman in the sport’s history. She’s the highest earning female athlete of all time. She was world number one for 319 weeks. And the stats go on and on. Now, she wants to add to them. Four years after leaving the sport and after giving birth to her second child, the American will play in the doubles at Queen’s Club in London next week - a warm-up tournament on the road to Wimbledon. However, she is attempting something almost no tennis player has done before - returning to the game in their mid-40s and going up against much younger players. How well can she perform? Ben Rothenberg, a tennis journalist who runs the Bounces podcast, joins us to explain the significance of Serena’s comeback and the challenges she might face. Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld Email: whatintheworld@bbc.co.uk WhatsApp: +44 330 12 33 22 6 Presenter: Hannah Gelbart Producers: William Lee Adams and Adam Chowdhury Editor: Verity Wilde
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  • What's harder, becoming one of the world's best tennis players or becoming one of the world's best tennis players again?

  • Serena Williams is attempting something that almost nobody has done before, returning to pro tennis in her mid-40s.

  • If she's successful, she could be competing against people

  • who hadn't even been born when she won her first Grand Slam title in 1999. And if she wins another

  • She won the Australian Open at the age of 35 back in 2017. Her career has been amazing.

  • major singles title, she'd be the oldest woman to do so since herself.

  • She's the highest-earning female athlete of all time.

  • And now she's 44, and she's going to be back playing doubles next week.

  • So today you're going to hear about her comeback and what that means for the sport.

  • I'm Hannah, and this is What in the World from the BBC World Service.

  • Thank you for having me.

  • Let's hear more about that now from Ben Rothenberg, a sports journalist who is behind the Bounces Tennis podcast.