Serena Williams calls anti-doping policy 'unprofessional' ahead of Wimbledon

Serena Williams is seething with rage over the anti-doping policy ahead of her return to tennis.

Before her first match at Wimbledon on Tuesday, June 30, the 44-year-old American tennis player attended a press conference on Sunday, June 28, where she slammed the sport’s punishing anti-doping policy.

Williams said, "It’s grueling. They changed the rules now. I didn’t know some of the rules. So apparently if you miss a test outside of your window, it still counts as missed. I’m like, I guess I can’t go pick up my kids.”

"It’s unprofessional. I hate it. I think it’s necessary, but I think a lot of the stuff, if I want to go places outside of my window, I should be able to go without having it count as a missed test,” she stated.

The US Open winner went on to confess that the drug test rules were a primary reason behind her decision to step back from the sport. She announced her break from competitive tennis in 2022 after losing to Harmony Tan at Wimbledon and Ajla Tomljanovic at the US Open.

Williams admitted, "That was a big reason why I didn’t want to come back either because it’s just so hard.”

“I mean, my life is busy, I run a company, I run a VC company, I travel the world. I have children. It’s like I could be in so many different cities so many different times,” she explained.

It is pertinent to mention that Serena Williams shares her two daughters, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., 8, and Adira River Ohanian, 2, with her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.