Players Under the Microscope / Guy McCrea / 17 April 2011 /

She hasn't played competitively since winning last year's Wimbledon, but Serena Williams is back in training and eyeing a return to action. Guy McCrea considers four key questions surrounding her comeback ...

When is Serena likely to return to competition?

It spoke volumes about Serena Williams' stature in women's tennis that one Twitter photo posted this week of her back in practice courted so much interest. Even if she hasn't struck a competitive ball in anger since winning her 13th Grand Slam singles crown at last year's Wimbledon, the reaction to the photo proves Serena remains the Queen Bee of the women's game.

There's still little information known about Serena's recovery. She was diagnosed with blood clots in February and has been on a course of blood thinners but we don't know the exact length of this medication or what stage she is at with it. In the absence of facts, people can only generalise and the typical timeline for a return to competition after taking such medication is about six months. Any earlier, and the risks related to her falling on court - and any resultant internal bleeding - loom large.

However much she wants to defend her Wimbledon title, deep down Serena will realise that a go-slow approach is best. As such, a return sometime during this summer's American hard-court swing may be more realistic.

How much time will she need to return to her best form?

In this regard, Serena is a special case as she has often won Grand Slams having played no WTA events immediately beforehand. Both Serena and her sister Venus have done this every year at Wimbledon with amazing success, while Serena also won the 2005 Australian Open having not played any warm-up tournaments.

But this will be a very different situation. Let's say Serena is able to make her competitive return at Wimbledon. Even acknowledging her outstanding grass court record, it would be too much to expect her to waltz back into the competitive arena and immediately play the sort of tennis required to win. (She is currently priced at around [4.8] on Betfair to do so.)

Serena will likely need several events before she can rekindle her best form. If she doesn't make Wimbledon, she will lose all her remaining points and become unranked. But whereas this would create obvious difficulties for other players, Serena will have no such problems since tournament directors everywhere will be falling over themselves to grant her wildcard entries into their events.

The bigger problem for Serena will more likely be that she has to probably take some painful defeats, some to players she would have expected to beat prior to her injuries. Just ask Dinara Safina ([34.0] to win the French Open) whose current comeback has included a 6-0, 6-0 thrashing by Kim Clijsters at the Australian Open. Confidence can crumble in the face of such results. Serena has been out for such a long time that it will surely take her a while to get back to her best.

Will she need to change her game?

An interesting issue - especially as Serena will celebrate her 30th birthday at the end of September. Both Serena and her sister Venus have always played an uncompromising brand of power tennis. Indeed, with their physical styles, they are the two players who have had the biggest influence on the women's game in the Open era.

It's tough to say whether or not she can play the same way beyond 30. Time waits for no player, even one so decorated and talented. A less-discussed aspect of Serena's game is her terrific movement around the court and this could be the key issue in assessing what she does going forward. For me, if she is still able to cover the court as well as before, there is little reason why Serena can't employ her usual tactics.

Can she ever return to number one?

Even if she returns at Wimbledon, there's no realistic chance of Serena taking back number one this season. Bizarrely, she recently returned to the WTA top ten despite all her time out. But Serena has simply missed too much tennis and the ultra-consistent Caroline Wozniacki ([5.5] favourite to win at Roland Garros) has the top ranking pretty much locked down at least until the Asian swing in October.

I also don't believe there's much chance of Serena getting back to world number one in 2012. Even before her injuries, the American didn't choose to play anywhere near the number of WTA events required to make a sustained bid for the top spot. Serena's main motivation is to win more Grand Slams and those priorities are unlikely to change, whenever she returns.

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