'The grass is always greener': Venus Williams hard-launches summer return

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She's back! Venus Williams is set to return to tennis next week on her favorite surface.

Williams, now 42, has been sidelined since January as a result of an injury she picked up in the first tournament of the year, the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand. After beating fellow American Katie Volynets in the first round at what became a rain-soaked event, Williams injured her hamstring in a three-set loss to China's Zhu Lin.

While she's been active on her YouTube channel chronicling her rehab and recovery, the former world No. 1 was mum on when fans would see her back on court until recently. News broke last month that she'd been given a wild card to the WTA 250 Libéma Open in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, and she hard-launched her comeback Thursday with an Instagram post of her training at the venue.

"The grass is always greener," she wrote, with some fitting emojis. The Libéma Open begins Monday, and Williams is expected to be joined by fellow Grand Slam champions Victoria Azarenka and Bianca Andreescu in the field, plus Belinda Bencic and Veronika Kudermetova.

While Williams is a five-time singles champion at Wimbledon, she has not, historically, played a lot on grass outside of the All England Club. She'll be playing just her sixth non-Grand Slam grass-court tournament in the Netherlands when she makes her tournament debut next week.

She's also received a wild card for Birmingham, which she played for the first time in 2019. She was also a wild card that year, and lost to Ashleigh Barty in the quarterfinals.

Williams is currently No. 701 in the WTA rankings, and hopes to play Wimbledon, which begins next month, for a 24th time.

Williams last competed in singles on grass at Wimbledon two years ago, where she reached the second round, though she participated in the mixed doubles with Jamie Murray at the tournament last year.