Serena Williams has denied she is planning a return to the tennis circuit, despite taking the procedural steps required.

The 23-time grand slam singles champion re-entered the International Tennis Integrity Agency's (ITIA) registered testing pool for the first time since 2022.

Williams has publicly disputed that her inclusion in the pool signals any plans to return. "Omg yall I'm NOT coming back," she wrote on X. "This wildfire is crazy."

Williams has not played an official match since her run to the third round of the US Open more than three years ago.

Although she described her departure at the time as "evolving away" from the sport rather than a hard retirement, she filed the paperwork with the ITIA that September that exempted her from the sport's stringent whereabouts requirements.

To return to competition, players must make themselves available for out-of-competition testing for six months before they are allowed to enter an event.

An ITIA spokesperson confirmed to the Guardian on Tuesday that Williams had requested reinstatement, while emphasising that a place on the list was not itself evidence of a comeback.

"Serena Williams is back on the Registered Testing Pool list," the spokesperson stated, noting that athletes returning from retirement "need to make themselves available for testing for six months before they can compete again", in line with World Anti-Doping Agency regulations.

Serena Williams and her husband, Alexis Ohanian, are proud parents of two daughters, Olympia, eight, and Adira, two.

The tennis star looked match-ready in a recent shoot with Porter magazine, after revealing she had dropped 31 pounds (14 kg) with help from a weight-loss jab.