Serena Williams is officially returning to professional tennis.

Nearly four years after her last competitive match, the 23-time Grand Slam champion has confirmed that she will make her comeback at the HSBC Championships at Queen’s Club in London next week.

The 44-year-old announced the news in a Nike video with the simple message: “Guess everybody heard the news.”

Williams will compete in the doubles event and is set to partner rising Canadian star Victoria Mboko.

Speaking about her return, Williams said:

“Queen’s Club feels like the perfect place to begin this next chapter. Grass has given me some of the most meaningful moments of my career, and I’m excited to be back competing on one of the sport’s most iconic stages.”

The announcement ends months of speculation surrounding a possible comeback. Williams returned to the anti-doping testing pool late last year and had been spotted training in Florida, fueling rumors of a return to competition.

Williams has not played professionally since the 2022 US Open. At the time, she avoided using the word retirement, instead describing her departure from tennis as “evolving away” from the sport.

Williams owns 23 Grand Slam singles titles, the most by any player in the Open Era, and has also won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles alongside her sister, Venus Williams. She remains one of the most successful and influential figures the sport has ever seen.

While her return begins in doubles, attention is already turning to Wimbledon, where Williams is a seven-time singles champion.

The next chapter begins at Queen’s Club.

Chennai Super Kings finished eighth in the IPL 2026 points table. They started on the wrong footing and ended on a poor note too. In the middle, some strong performances by Sanju Samson and others raised hopes among the fans of CSK, one of the most followed IPL franchises, yet they could not qualify for the playoffs. At the end, CSK ended with 12 points from 14 matches. Ravichandran Ashwin, a former CSK player himself, praised the efforts of Sanju Samson, Akeal Hosein, and Anshul Kamboj, but added that the auction strategies should be reworked.

Auction Strategy, Role Clarity And Decision-Making

“Auction strategies need to be reworked. Two teams picked Venkatesh Iyer and Jason Holder for 7 crores and made the final. Instead of picking two for 14 crores each, they should have gone for these two to achieve a combination of youth and experience. They didn’t gel as a team and had role clarity issues,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.

“Other teams suffered injuries before the season itself. But for CSK, injuries aren’t new, and their players got injured after the season started. Despite their best efforts, they couldn’t overcome the injuries, which continue to be a problem for them. They gave the wrong insertion points for many players. Using Brevis and Dube as finishers means the decision-making was also lopsided.”

Meanwhile, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) head coach Stephen Fleming said that although MS Dhoni did not feature in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026, the veteran wicketkeeper-batter continued to have a big influence on the team, adding that his presence around the side has been extremely important.

The 44-year-old, who suffered injuries, missed the entire tournament. However, despite Dhoni not featuring in any of CSK’s matches, coach Fleming said that the former CSK captain has remained closely involved with the team and continues to have a major influence, particularly in guiding younger players and maintaining continuity within the squad.

“MS (Dhoni) has been around a lot this year, which has been really important for the team, for a lot of young players, and continuity. So, he’s been a big part. He hasn’t played, but he’s still had a big influence on the team,” Fleming said at the post-match press conference

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IPL 2026 News | Shami’s Sensation Leads Lucknow to First Win of Season

The New York Yankees are preparing one of their top prospects for a possible bullpen role. The Yankees are moving hard-throwing righty Carlos Lagrange to the bullpen in Triple-A, reports the YES Network, and will see whether he can contribute to the big-league team ahead of the trade deadline.

“He’s definitely got everyone’s attention,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said about Lagrange in spring training (via MLB.com). “I love where he’s at. I would not be surprised if he is impacting us early, middle, later part of the season. I can just tell you, we’re all very excited about his continued development and what we think he could mean to our team at some point.”

Lagrange, 23, entered the season as the 49th-best prospect in baseball. He’s an extremely hard thrower, averaging 99.1 mph with his fastball in Triple-A this year and topping out at 103.1 mph. Per Statcast, Lagrange has thrown the 29 fastest pitches by a starting pitcher in Triple-A this season, and 44 of the 50 fastest. He also works with a slider and changeup.

New York’s bullpen has been effective overall this season, pitching to a 3.59 ERA (tenth in MLB) and 3.44 expected ERA (sixth), which is based on the quality of contact allowed. There have been several late-inning midadventures though. Yankees relievers rank 26th in win probability added, which reflects some blown saves and messy setup situations.

If Lagrange does make it to the Bronx as a reliever this season, he will bring needed velocity to a bullpen that ranks near the bottom of the league in average fastball velocity. Not coincidentally, Yankees relievers also rank at the bottom of the league in fastball swing-and-miss rate. Here are the numbers entering play Tuesday:

New York’s bullpen badly needs a reliever who can simply throw a fastball by hitters. Their relief crew largely relies on ground balls and getting hitters to chase breaking balls and changeups out of the zone, not being overpowering. Lagrange could, potentially, be that power reliever. If nothing else, it’s worth trying it in Triple-A and seeing what it looks like.

Even if the Lagrange move works out, it’s unlikely the Yankees would pass on the reliever market at the trade deadline. It could lessen their urgency to add a reliever, but it’s doubtful they would consider a young and inexperienced (inexperienced both in MLB and working as a reliever) pitcher the solution to their problem. A solution? Yes. The solution? Unlikely.

Lagrange has pitched to a 4.41 ERA in 11 starts and 49 innings in Triple-A this season. He’s struck out 29.0% of the batters he’s faced, comfortably above the 21.1% Triple-A average for starting pitchers. Lagrange has also walked 11.5% of the batters he’s faced. That’s above the 10.3% average. Control remains the biggest question.

The Yankees are 36-23 and one game behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East. Their plus-98 run differential is the best in the American League by 67 runs.

The NTE 1.1 maintenance will start on June 3, 2026, at 6 am (UTC+8) and will last about 5 hours. You will be unable to access the game during this period, as the servers will undergo maintenance to prepare for new content, including two new characters in version 1.1 of Neverness to Everness.

This article covers the start and end times for the NTE 1.1 maintenance.

When does the NTE 1.1 maintenance start?

The NTE 1.1 maintenance is set to go live on June 3, 2026, at 6 am (UTC+8). It is expected to last about 5 hours, and once it is over, you will be able to enjoy new content such as the Porsche x NTE collab.

Here is a list of the major time zones, indicating when the servers will be shut down for maintenance:

America (June 2, 2026)

• Pacific Daylight Time (PDT): 3 pm
• Mountain Daylight Time (MDT): 4 pm
• Central Daylight Time (CDT): 5 pm
• Eastern Daylight Time (EDT): 6 pm

Europe (June 2, 2026)

• Western European Summer Time (WEST): 10 pm
• Central European Summer Time (CEST): 11 pm
• Eastern European Summer Time (EEST): 12 am (June 1, 2026)

Asia (June 3, 2026)

• India Standard Time (IST): 3:30 am
• China Standard Time (CST): 6 am
• Philippine Standard Time (PHT): 6 am
• Japanese Standard Time (JST): 7 am
• Korea Standard Time (KST): 7 am

Here is a timer till the NTE 1.1 maintenance goes live:

When will the NTE 1.1 maintenance end?

The maintenance will end on June 3, 2026, at 11 am (UTC+8). You will be able to log in then, as the servers will reopen, allowing you to enjoy the new content that version 1.1 of Neverness to Everness holds.

Here are the major time zones, indicating the end time for the maintenance:

America (June 2, 2026)

• Pacific Daylight Time (PDT): 8 pm
• Mountain Daylight Time (MDT): 9 pm
• Central Daylight Time (CDT): 10 pm
• Eastern Daylight Time (EDT): 11 pm

Europe (June 3, 2026)

• Western European Summer Time (WEST): 3 am
• Central European Summer Time (CEST): 4 am
• Eastern European Summer Time (EEST): 5 am

Asia (June 3, 2026)

• India Standard Time (IST): 8:30 am
• China Standard Time (CST): 11 am
• Philippine Standard Time (PHT): 11 am
• Japanese Standard Time (JST): 12 pm
• Korea Standard Time (KST): 12 pm

Here is a countdown indicating when the maintenance will be over:

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