Imagine witnessing a showdown between the WTA’s best of today and Serena Williams. Sounds fascinating, right? Recently, Serena shared a post on X in which she dropped a major hint about picking the racket once again. While fans were busy decoding what her mysterious text could mean, Iga Swiatek matched the timing with another coinciding piece of news.

The WTA fans recently experienced a surge in their expectations about Serena Williams’ possible endeavor on the tennis courts. The retired player, who has been keeping busy with her personal life and professional engagements like running a self-owned brand, came forward to express a desire to step onto the courts once again.

“I’m ready to hit some balls again,” the legend shared, raising the fans’ intrigue about what could she possibly mean. Ready to play pro again and keep going like her sister Venus? Play tennis for a commercial? Return to the sport in some other capacity that allows her to be on court? Who knows?!

Just minutes after Serena shared this post, Iga Swiatek also shared a message that seemed to be an open challenge to anyone who wishes to hit the courts. “Looking for a friendly partner to play doubles with. Who’s in town?” the Pole conveyed in an Instagram story, amid the preparation phase for the upcoming clay-court major.

Although there wasn’t any direct relation between these two posts, the timings being parallel has raised speculation. Swiatek, who recently emerged victorious at the Italian Open, is establishing her name as one of the strongest contenders in the WTA scene right now. Her focus seems to be more on singles than doubles, but Swiatek did play doubles in 2020 with Nicole Melichar-Martinez and with Bethanie Mattek-Sands in 2021 in Paris.

For now, there’s still no leak of a correlation between the two posts. However, this mystery came just hours after Swiatek attained a feat parallel to that of Serena Williams.

Iga Swiatek joins the league of legends like Serena Williams

The tennis world was amazed to see Iga Swiatek emerge victorious at the finals in Rome. The victory against Aryna Sabalenka didn’t just add another clay court title, third in Rome, to the Pole’s growing portfolio but also helped her attain a place in the history books.

According to records, there are just a handful of players who managed to secure consecutive wins in both Madrid and Rome. While the list includes legendary names like Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, Iga Swiatek’s addition added more glory to her name as she became just the third WTA player to achieve this feat, after Williams and Dinara Safina.

As Swiatek is now determined to extend her days of being a champion at the ongoing French Open, might we see her take up doubles play soon?