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Venus Williams isn't done pursuing an Australian Open title.

The WTA announced Sunday that the legend will participate in 2023's first Grand Slam tournament as a main-draw wild card. It will be her 22nd appearance in the tournament since she made her debut in 1998.

"I am very excited to be returning to Melbourne to compete at the Australian Open in January," Williams said.

"I've been competing in the country for over 20 years now, and the Australian community has always supported me wholeheartedly. It will be an honor to play for the fans again, and I'm looking forward to making more memories at the tournament this year."

There was a time when the world's former No. 1 player was a threat to win any event she entered, but she played just four tournaments in 2022. That lack of playing time means she is currently ranked 1,007th.

Yet there is no doubting Williams' stature as one of the sport's most notable legends.

The American is a seven-time Grand Slam champion with five of the titles coming at Wimbledon and two coming at the U.S. Open. While she is yet to win the Australian Open, she reached the final in 2003 and again 14 years later in 2017.

She has also been to the quarterfinals or better nine different times.

Venus lost to her sister in each of the two finals she made, although she won't have to worry about such a result this time around since Serena is now retired.

Next year's tournament is set to start on Jan. 16 at Melbourne Park.

The producers of Netflix's popular Drive to Survive series providing a behind-the-scenes look at Formula 1 racing are taking their talents to another sport.

Netflix released a trailer for its Break Point series, which is made by the same producers as the F1 series and will focus on tennis. The docuseries debuts on Jan. 13 ahead of the 2023 Grand Slam season.

Howard Fendrich of the Associated Press noted the series' first five episodes will be released in January, while the next five will be released in June.

This will allow the show to focus on various tournaments, including the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open.

Nick Kyrgios, Iga Swiatek, Sloane Stephens, Frances Tiafoe, Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas and more were featured in the trailer.

Drive to Survive is largely credited with spreading the popularity of F1, especially in the United States. It remains to be seen if such an effect will happen with tennis given it was more established with a longer history, but fans will surely receive new perspectives about some of the game's biggest stars and rising names.

Carlos Alcaraz, the No. 1 men's tennis player in the world, announced Saturday he suffered a muscle tear in his left abdomen, which will require around six weeks of recovery.

As a result, he will not compete in the 2022 ATP Finals scheduled to begin Nov. 13.

Taylor Fritz will replace Alcaraz in the ATP Finals. Fritz is ranked No. 9.

Alcaraz won his first two matches at the Paris Masters in straight sets. In the quarterfinals Friday, he dropped the first set to Holger Rune and went to a tiebreak in the second. Down 3-1, he retired.

The 19-year-old said after the match he couldn't stretch or hit his serve or forehand well.

This marks a disappointing end to an impressive 2022 season. Alcaraz went 57-13, winning the U.S. Open and advancing to the quarterfinals of the French Open.

The Spanish star didn't specify whether his injury put his status for the Australian Open in jeopardy. The first Grand Slam gets underway Jan. 16. Though that's well outside the six-week window for his recovery, the layoff could disrupt his preparations.

Venus Williams celebrated the 28th anniversary of her first professional tennis match with an Instagram post Monday night.

"On this day 28 years ago I made my debut to professional tennis. I never imagined 28 years later what [Serena Williams] and I would experience in this sport," Williams wrote. "I can recount the wins and the losses, but in the end it was always about the pursuit of my best self. Everyday, win, lose or draw. I can look back with no regrets. It's all been worth it."

Coco Gauff was one of many who responded to Williams' post, calling her "Queen."

ESPN's D'Arcy Maine noted the comments "raised speculation that her legendary career could be nearing an end."

Williams' schedule has been reduced in recent years, including just one appearance over the last five Grand Slam tournaments, and she didn't make her 2022 debut until August during the lead up to the U.S. Open.

She played both singles and doubles in New York, losing in the opening round of both events. She lost to Alison Van Uytvanck in singles and teamed with her sister, Serena, in a loss to the Czech Republic tandem of Lucie Hradecká and Linda Nosková in doubles.

The U.S. Open was treated as a going away party for Serena, who'd hinted toward retirement during the weeks leading up to the season's final major tournament.

Instead, the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion said last week she expects to return.

"I am not retired," Serena told reporters. "The chances [of a return] are very high. You can come to my house, I have a court."

Likewise, Venus' post Monday took on a reflective tone about her Hall of Fame career but stopped short of saying her playing days were over.

Venus' career resume includes 23 Grand Slam titles (seven singles, 14 doubles and two mixed doubles), four Olympic gold medals (one singles and three doubles) and a total of 73 tournament titles across the three disciplines.

Her most recent title came at Wimbledon in 2016, when she teamed with Serena to win the doubles championship.

If Venus opts to continue her career, the first Grand Slam event of 2023 is the Australian Open beginning Jan. 16. She would need to qualify or receive a wild card for the tournament.

Tennis fans may not have seen the last of Serena Williams.

"I'm not retired," she said at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference last week.

She added: "The chances are very high [of playing again]. You come to my house, I've got a court."

The tennis legend penned her "farewell to tennis" in an August essay for Vogue but stopped short of calling it a retirement, instead describing it as "evolving away from tennis."

A professional athlete, especially one who has reached the heights Williams has, can never know what retirement feels like until they experience it. In addition, sports is littered with stars who walked away only to discover they weren't ready to call it quits.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady is the most recent example. His NFL retirement in February lasted just 40 days.

The full effect is only beginning to settle in for Williams. She said at the TechCrunch conference that it's "very weird" to not have any official matches to prepare for.

"It was like the first day of the rest of my life, and so far, I am enjoying it," she said. "But I'm still trying to find that balance.”

The real test of the 41-year-old's resolve will come when the 2023 Australian Open rolls around and life after tennis truly begins. How much will she find herself wanting to get back on the court for meaningful action?

Reaching the third round of the U.S. Open and upsetting second-seeded Anett Kontaveit might have left her believing she has something left in the tank. Even though her career has extended well past the point at which other legends have continued, maybe she can make one last run to a Grand Slam final.

Serena's days as a full-time player are over, but getting her back for a handful of big events would be music to the ears of fans.

The International Tennis Integrity Agency announced Friday that former top-ranked tennis player Simona Halep has received a provisional suspension after testing positive for a prohibited substance, Roxadustat, during the 2022 U.S. Open.

Halep is "ineligible to compete in or attend any sanctioned tennis events organized by the governing bodies of the sport" while suspended.

She released a statement on Twitter following the ITIA's announcement:

Halep suffered an upset loss to Ukrainian qualifier Daria Snigur in the first round of the U.S. Open in late August. It marked her earliest exit in a Grand Slam event since the 2018 U.S. Open.

The 31-year-old Romanian announced in mid-September she wouldn't compete for the remainder of the 2022 season while recovering from nose surgery. She'd been in contention to earn a spot in the WTA Tour Finals before the procedure.

She's No. 9 in the WTA rankings and finished with the No. 1 ranking after both the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

Halep is also a two-time major champion, having won the 2018 French Open and 2019 Wimbledon championships, and she's captured a total of 24 WTA singles titles.

Roxadustat is a medication that received initial approval in 2019 for "treatment of anaemia in patients with dialysis-dependent chronic kidney disease." It's been shown to increase endogenous erythropoietin production and hemoglobin levels while also improving iron availability.

The ITIA said the drug was found in both Halep's "A" and "B" samples taken at the U.S. Open. She was first informed of the positive test Oct. 7.

A duration for her suspension wasn't immediately announced.

The 2023 WTA Tour schedule is scheduled to begin in early January with the Brisbane International tournament. The year's first major, the Australian Open, is set to get underway Jan. 16.

Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant, international soccer players Trinity Rodman and Sam Kerr, tennis player Carlos Alcaraz and U.S. sprinter Erriyon Knighton were named to the Time100 Next list for 2022.

Time's Next list identifies rising stars in the cultural landscape before they become crossover mainstream names.

Already a human highlight reel in his first two NBA seasons, Morant emerged as a bonafide superstar last season. He averaged 27.4 points, 6.7 assists and 5.7 rebounds while leading the Grizzlies to the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, earning an All-Star berth and All-NBA selection along the way.

"We’ve got a unicorn in Memphis, my hometown," pop star and Grizzlies part-owner Justin Timberlake wrote in Time. "Every once in a while, certain players come along and really change the culture of the game. Ja is emerging as a face of the NBA for good reason. The only thing missing for him is championship hardware."

Rodman, the daughter of Basketball Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman, has already built her own impressive resumè and appears to be emerging as the next face of American women's soccer. The 20-year-old became the youngest player ever drafted into the National Women's Soccer League last year, and just a year later she was nominated for the Ballon d'or Féminine.

"She could literally shred the fences internationally worldwide in time," women's soccer legend Brianna Scurry wrote of Rodman. "That’s going to be really exciting to see, because I think as she grows, she will become unstoppable. Literally. It’s all there. The wealth of potential is off the charts."

Knighton has an equal chance to etch his name in the record books as the next great American sprinter. The 18-year-old set the under-20 world record in the 200-meter dash in April and won bronze at this year's World Championships.

Alcaraz, the 2022 U.S. Open champion, became the youngest player to ever reach the No. 1 spot in men's tennis history at 19 years and 130 days old. In a period of tennis where Roger Federer is stepping away, Novak Djokovic is playing a part-time schedule due to his vaccination status and Rafael Nadal is approaching his late-30s, Alcaraz is potentially in the process of filling the sport's desperate need for a new superstar.

Kerr is the oldest athlete on the list at 29 and is already cemented as a legend. She's the only woman to win the Golden Boot in three different leagues and has been one of the most prolific soccer players on the planet for a half-decade.