Serena Williams is considering playing mixed doubles at the Rio Olympics after passing on the event at London 2012.
“I would love to. I don’t know, though. That’s a lot of matches. We’ll see,” Williams said ahead of the Australian Open on Saturday.
Williams owns three Olympic doubles titles with older sister Venus Williams and added her first singles gold four years ago. No player has ever won gold in singles, doubles and mixed doubles. Mixed returned to the Olympic program in 2012 for the first time since 1924.
In 2012, it wasn’t announced whether Williams would play mixed doubles until Day Four of the Games themselves, when the U.S. mixed teams were entered.
Then, Williams cited a few reasons for not playing mixed — her struggle to choose between Andy Roddick and Bob Bryan as a partner, too busy of a schedule with already playing singles and doubles and deferring to Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond, then top-ranked doubles players — according to The Associated Press.
Huber hasn’t played on the WTA Tour since 2014. Raymond retired last year.
On Saturday, Williams mentioned John Isner and Jack Sock as potential mixed doubles partners. Williams played with Isner at the 2015 Hopman Cup. She’s played one Grand Slam mixed doubles match since 1999, with Bryan at the 2012 French Open.
“I play well with John,” she said. “I didn’t get to play with Jack. Yeah, anyone with a big serve, where I can just stand at the net and look good, that’s all I need to do.”
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