The 2026 French Open was plagued with intense heat which made weather a major storyline for the Roland Garros tournament.

It forced players to retire and withdraw and caused others to struggle mightily mid match.

That same weather storyline should not be in play for the third Grand Slam of the tennis season, the 2026 Wimbledon Championships, scheduled to begin main draw play on Monday, June 29.

MORE: What we are learning in this week’s Wimbledon warm up tournaments

Intense heat is happening now

Unfortunately, players going through the qualifying rounds right now are dealing with intense heat which is expected to reach a peak of 93 degrees on Friday. Saturday will remain in the high eighties before the temperatures go down to 73 degrees on Monday.

Rain could be an issue for early round play on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, with the highest percentage rain chance of 81% on Wednesday.

Wimbledon has two courts with retractable roofs, Centre Court and Court 1. Players whose matches are scheduled on these courts will largely be unaffected by rain.

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What will be the Wimbledon storylines

The French Open heat and the amazing play of qualifier Maja Chwalinska dominated the headlines. Wimbledon storylines are expected to center around Venus Williams and Serena Williams playing doubles and Serena playing singles.

Stan Wawrinka will be playing in his last career Wimbledon so there will be a lot of attention on him. Wawrinka, 41, the 2014 and 2015 Wimbledon quarterfinalist, is retiring at the end of the year.

The Andy Murray coached Jack Draper will grab headlines. This will be particularly true if Draper makes a deep run in his home tournament.

Because grass season is extremely short, we do not have a good feel for who will play well at Wimbledon. Many of the storylines will be written as the rounds progress.

Wimbledon will air on ESPN beginning Monday, June 29.

NEED TO KNOW

• Serena Williams will compete in the 2026 Wimbledon ladies' singles as a wild card, marking her first singles match since 2022

• Serena and sister Venus Williams are also set to reunite as doubles partners at Wimbledon
• Earlier this month, Serena restarted her doubles career at the Queen's Club Championship in London after nearly four years away from professional tennis

Serena Williams is making another major tennis comeback.

The tennis star, 44, is set to compete in the 2026 ladies' singles at Wimbledon as a wild card, the tournament announced on its official Instagram account on Sunday, June 21.

"This is not a drill," Wimbledon captioned the post, which featured a photo of Serena on a grass court alongside the words, "Serena Returns."

View this post on Instagram

The news comes less than a week after the announcement that Serena would reunite with her former doubles partner, sister Venus Williams, 46, to play at Wimbledon, also as wild cards, when the tournament begins on June 29.

Wimbledon's Instagram account shared the news alongside a photo of the sisters on the court together, writing, "Back together, at Wimbledon."

On June 9, Serena restarted her doubles career at the Queen's Club Championship in London after nearly four years away from professional tennis. She and her partner, Canada's Victoria Mboko, defeated Erin Routliffe of New Zealand and American Nicole Melichar-Martinez in straight sets, 7-6, 6-2.

Two days later, on June 11, the team was forced to withdraw after Mboko sustained a right knee injury.

On June 16, Serena competed in doubles at the Berlin Open in Germany. She and partner Karolina Muchova were defeated in the first round, losing in straight sets to Routliffe and Giuliana Olmos, 6-4, 6-4.

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Serena's last singles match came at the 2022 US Open, when she lost to Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round. She said at the time that she didn't want to use the word "retiring" and instead shared that she was "evolving" away from tennis, per ESPN.

Serena previously shared that her 8-year-old daughter inspired her to make her tennis comeback.

“My daughter, Olympia, told me I should play with Venus,” she told reporters at the Berlin Tennis Open on June 16. “She's always right, so I was like, okay.”

"She's very serious," Serena added about Olympia's input. "She knows. She's very smart. She's very wise, I think, is a better word. So I said, 'Okay, Olympia, let's see if we can do it.' "

The tennis star is also set to make an appearance at Fanatics Fest this summer. Serena will face off against some of the biggest names in sports — including Tom Brady, Novak Djokovic, John Cena, Rob Gronkowski, Cam Skattebo, Jordan Chiles and Jaxson Dart, among others — in the third annual Fanatics Games, PEOPLE previously reported.

The professional athletes will compete in an array of athletic challenges, including NFL Clutch Kick, NBA Game Winning Shot, WWE Superstar Entrance, UFC Striking, MLB Pitching, NHL Shoot & Score, Dick's Sporting Goods Putting and FIFA Ultimate Goal.

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