Serena Williams predicted to break a tennis record during her Wimbledon return

Serena Williams’ return to tennis is one of the biggest talking points in the sport ahead of her first match at Wimbledon for four years.

Williams is set to play doubles alongside Venus Williams at the Grand Slam after the sister pairing were offered a much sought after Wimbledon wildcard.

The American returned to action in doubles at Queen’s and the Berlin Open, where she paired with Victoria Mboko and Karolina Muchova, respectively.

There are plenty of rumours swirling about Williams also playing singles at Wimbledon, as there is one remaining wildcard to be dished out by the Grand Slam.

Williams’ former coach, Rick Macci, has not only predicted that the 23-time Grand Slam champion will play singles, but he thinks she will pop a huge rating upon her return.

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Taking to social media, Macci said: “Serena will play singles at Wimbledon. The Compton Comet has not accepted the final wildcard but 99.999 I have a feeling (inside) the queen of the green will be be seen on Centre Court and break TV tennis ratings about the sport.”

The most watched matches at Wimbledon tend to exclusively be the finals, especially in the UK, so it is very unlikely Williams will do as Macci predicts.

Most watched Wimbledon matches in UK history

• 1980 : Wimbledon Final — 17.3 Million (UK)
• 2013 : Wimbledon Final — 17.3 M (UK)
• 2012 : Wimbledon Final — 16.9 Million (UK)
• 2008 : Wimbledon Final — 13.1 M (UK)
• 2023 : Wimbledon Final — 11.3 M (UK)
• 2009 : Wimbledon Final — 11.1 M (UK)
• 2019 : Wimbledon Final — 9.6 M (UK)

To date, the most watched final in Wimbledon history is the 1980 final between John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg, which is considered one of the best tennis matches of all time. 17.3 million viewers tuned in to watch the near-four-hour contest.

Borg won the match in five sets against his American counterpart and it is often a final that is compared to Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer’s classic from 2008.

That was watched by 13.1 million people on the BBC as the Spaniard defeated his great rival in five sets.

Out of the seven most watched Wimbledon matches of all time, none of them are a women’s match, which makes Macci’s prediction even less likely.

However, Williams does have history of breaking network figures at Grand Slams. The American’s last match at the US Open in 2022 broke ESPN records according to the network.

ESPN revealed Williams’ defeat to Ajla Tomljanović at the 2022 US Open was the most-watched tennis match in the history of the network with 4.8 million viewers.

Williams is expected to return to the US Open this year, where she is rumoured to be playing with her sister, so there is scope she could smash the record yet again.