23-time major champ Serena Williams says she’ll play in the U.S. Open

NEW YORK — Serena Williams is planning to play in the 2020 U.S. Open.

The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion said in a video shown during the U.S. Tennis Assn.’s tournament presentation Wednesday that she “cannot wait to return” to New York for the major championship she has won six times.

The 38-year-old American was the runner-up in Flushing Meadows each of the past two years.

The U.S. Open normally is the fourth and final Grand Slam tournament of the season. It will be held without spectators from Aug. 31 to Sept. 13, making it be the second major of 2020, following the Australian Open, which concluded in early February, before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down sports competitions.

The French Open was postponed from May because of the pandemic and currently is scheduled to start a week after the U.S. Open ends. Wimbledon was canceled altogether for the first time since 1945 during World War II.