Serena Williams practices on special court built by husband Alexis Ohanian that mimics US open surface

Serena Williams began her preparations ahead of the final Grand Slam of the year by practicing on a court with a surface similar to that of the US Open.

Williams, who had earlier astonished the tennis world by breaking a 12-month hiatus to play at Eastbourne and Wimbledon, failed to make her comeback count after losing her opening-round match at SW19 to Harmony Tan.

The 40-year-old has now been spotted practicing on a court built by husband Alexis Ohanian, which was confirmed by Ohanian to be using the "official US Open surface".

"Serena out there for another 9 AM practice. Let’s go @serenawilliams you got this Queen! BTW is this the court @alexisohanian had built during COVID?"

"Yes. Official US Open surface, too!"

The American star has already made known her intentions to play at the National Bank Open and the Cincinnati Open, both of which are WTA 1000 tournaments that lead up to the US Open.

Serena Williams at the US Open

Serena Williams failed in her quest to win a 24th Grand Slam title at the 2019 US Open

Serena Williams has won the US Open women's singles title six times and holds the joint record for the highest number of title wins in New York along with fellow American Chris Evert.

Serena first won her US Open title in 1999 when she was just 17, defeating Martina Hingis to register her first-ever Grand Slam win. In doing so, became the second African-American woman ever to win a Grand Slam since Althea Gibson in 1958.

After losing to sister Venus Williams in the 2001 US Open final, Serena Williams tilted the scales to win her second US Open in 2002. She did not feature in the US Open finals for the next five years but came back strongly to defeat Jelena Jankovic in the 2008 title clash.

After losing the 2011 US Open final against Samantha Stosur of Australia, the younger of the two Williams sisters won three successive titles in New York, getting the better of Victoria Azarenka in 2012 and 2013 before outplaying Caroline Wozniacki in 2014.

Chasing her 24th Grand Slam title, the 40-year-old agonizingly fell short in 2018 and 2019 when she reached two successive US Open finals but failed to get past Naomi Osaka and Bianca Andreescu respectively.

The six-time champion last played at the US Open in 2020 where she lost to Victoria Azarenka in the semifinals.