Serena Williams isn't calling it a comeback — a minimum of not but. However that gained't cease individuals from questioning.

On Wednesday, the four-time Olympic gold medalist needed to confront that actuality head on, throughout a clumsy change with Today anchor Savannah Guthrie. Impressed by the information that Williams lately registered with the Worldwide Tennis Integrity Company's (ITIA) drug testing pool, three years after formally retiring from the game, Guthrie straight requested Williams the massive questions: is she planning a return to skilled tennis?

Williams might hardly imagine her ears: "I imply, actually?," she replied with amusing. "Are you asking this on the Immediately present? Oh my gosh."

"They’d kill me if I didn't," Savannah identified.

"Actually? Oh my goodness," Williams mentioned.

Refusing to let her dodge the query, Guthrie pressed, "Is {that a} no?"

"Is {that a} no?” Williams repeated, laughing. Much more laughter may very well be heard off-camera, prompting Williams to go searching and level, noting, "All of the individuals in your set are laughing! That is distracting. You’re distracting us over there."

In the meantime, Guthrie refused to lose focus, telling Williams, "You didn't say sure or no."

"I'm simply having enjoyable and having fun with my life proper now," replied Williams, who shares daughters Olympia, 8, and Adira, 2, with husband Alexis Ohanian.

However Guthrie nonetheless didn't let her off the hook. "That's not a sure or a no," the Immediately anchor argued.

"That's not a sure or a no," Williams agreed, disregarding the query. "I don't know, I'm simply going to see what occurs."

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Grinning, Guthrie mentioned, "That's a 'perhaps,' to me," to which Williams instantly turned defensive.

"That's not a perhaps," the athlete insisted. "Hear, I’ve two youngsters. I’m a full-time stay-at-home [mom]. Once I stuffed out a kind the opposite day, occupation: housewife."

When Guthrie pressed on, reminding Williams that she re-entered the drug protocol in December 2025, the tennis champ as soon as once more tried to maneuver issues ahead.

"Did I re-enter?" Williams requested coyly. "I didn't know if I used to be out. Hear, I can't focus on this."

Guthrie then mentioned, "I'm simply saying that if you happen to needed to place it to mattress, this might be second to place the retirement rumors to mattress."

Williams quipped, "I wish to go to mattress. It's early." Laughing, she added, "You're humorous. That was enjoyable."

Guthrie then wrapped up the interview, stating that Williams would even be on a later phase with anchors Jenna Bush Hager and Sheinelle Jones. Off-camera, Immediately's Craig Melvin interrupted, including, "Hopefully!"

Guthrie defended, "Hopefully? She's not mad at me." Turning again to Williams, she clarified, "You're not mad at me."

"No," Williams confirmed with amusing.

Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam tennis champion and four-time Olympic gold medalist, final performed on the 2022 US Open, saying on the time that she was “evolving away” from tennis. After igniting hypothesis about her return in December, Williams tried to close down the chatter with a agency social media put up.

"Omg yall I’m NOT coming again," she wrote on X. "This wildfire is loopy."

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Months prior, her older sister Venus — who returned to tennis in 2024 after an extended hiatus — made it clear that she would love for Serena to hitch her again on the tennis courts.

"We at all times did every part collectively, so in fact I miss her," she instructed reporters finally yr's DC Open. "But when she comes again, I’m positive she’ll let y’all know.”

Venus added, "I don’t know what she’s going to do. I don’t ask these questions. I feel we at all times hit the ball, as a result of that’s who we’re. We’re at all times hitting."

Watch Serena dodge questions on her tennis comeback above.

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