Serena Williams will return to tennis competition in this COVID-19 era of tennis in Kentucky!
The inaugural edition of the Top Seed Open will feature Williams as well as Sloane Stephens in the field, organizers said on Thursday.
According to a statement from the tournament on Thursday, American stars Williams and Stephens, both former U.S. Open champions, are set to compete at the international-level event in Lexington, Kentucky that begins on Aug. 10.
The event will be Williams’ first tournament since she helped Team USA defeat Latvia in Fed Cup in February when she defeated Jelena Ostapenko and was beaten by Anastasija Sevastova.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion has previously confirmed that she will compete at this year’s U.S. Open at Flushing Meadows.
Stephens’ last tour-level match was a second round defeat to Canadian teenager Leylah Annie Fernandez at the Mexican Open in March, just days before the COVID-19 pandemic forced professional tennis into hiatus.
The Lexington event was originally scheduled to be played in Washington, D.C. but the tournament owners made the surprising announcement that the women’s event would not be held alongside the men in Washington, but moved to Kentucky.
It is speculated that Williams will play this event and then take the next week off, the week of the Western & Southern Open, the annual event held in Cincinnati but moved to be played at the USTA National Tennis Center in New York, the week before the U.S. Open.
Stephens has been playing World TeamTennis for the Chicago Smash at The Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia. Kim Clijsters, the 37-year-old three-time U.S. Open champion, has been the talk of the WTT season and some have speculated that she too could join the Lexington field and perhaps play in the U.S. Open, but would need a wild card invitation from the U.S. Tennis Association since she currently does not have a WTA ranking.
