This is the real deal now.After initially returning in doubles, Serena Williams is ramping up her tennis return with singles, too.At Wimbledon, of all places.All eyes will be on the 44-year-old Williams when she competes in the first round of the grass-court Grand Slam, which starts Monday.While she has played two doubles warmup matches recently, Williams hasn’t contested an official singles match in nearly four years.ESPN commentator Mary Joe Fernandez called it “a sign of confidence” that Serena is prepared to enter the sport’s most prestigious tournament without having played a singles match in so long.“But if anybody can do it,” Fernandez said, “it’s Serena.”Added fellow ESPN commentator Patrick McEnroe, “I would call this Serena being Serena. It’s very Serena-like to do something audacious like this and I didn’t think for one minute she was coming back to play doubles (only).”Williams has accepted wild card invitations for both singles and doubles (with sister Venus) from the All England Club.Williams made her return this month by playing two doubles matches with two different partners. She won with Victoria Mboko at Queen’s Club and lost with Karolina Muchova at the Berlin Open.Williams’ powerful serve and returns were on display but it remains to be seen how well she can cover the entire court and how much stamina she has for singles.With 23 Grand Slam singles titles — seven of them at Wimbledon — and 14 more in doubles (all with Venus as her partner), nobody is questioning her qualifications, experience or aura.“Hopefully she’ll be able to be competitive right off the bat,” McEnroe added.Serena also swept the singles and doubles (with Venus) titles at the 2012 London Olympics, when the tennis competition was held on the hallowed grass of the All England Club. And she was t …
