LONDON, United Kingdom — Serena Williams’ highly anticipated return to singles tennis at Wimbledon ended in a hard-fought three-set defeat to 20-year-old Australian Maya Joint on Tuesday, 1,462 days after her last singles match at the All England Club.
The 44-year-old American great, who accepted a wild card into the tournament after nearly four years away from singles competition, thrilled the Centre Court crowd with a valiant performance before falling 6-3, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3 to her opponent 24 years her junior. The match marked Williams’ first singles appearance since the 2022 US Open, where she had indicated she was “evolving away” from the sport.
Williams showed flashes of her trademark power throughout the contest. Joint controlled the first set 6-3, dictating play with aggressive baseline tennis and keeping the legend pinned in defensive positions. The second set proved to be a rollercoaster, with both players trading breaks in a chaotic display of tennis.
The set ultimately came down to a tiebreak, where Williams saved a match point and demonstrated her fighting spirit to close out the set 7-6 (8-6) as Centre Court erupted. However, the 23-time Grand Slam champion showed a dip in energy in the third set, with Joint staying fresh and aggressive to pull away 6-3.
Speaking before the tournament, Williams had described her return as a “great opportunity to showcase what I do best.” “I never thought I would do this again,” she said at the pre-championship press conference. “When I evolved, I never knew I would come back.” The seven-time Wimbledon singles champion has not won a match at the All England Club since 2019, when she reached the final.
Williams’ daughters, Olympia and Adira, watched from the stands alongside her sister Venus, with whom she will partner in the women’s doubles tournament beginning Thursday. The Williams sisters have won six Wimbledon doubles titles together
Joint, who described the victory as “crazy” and a childhood dream, showed remarkable composure against one of the greatest players in tennis history. She struggled to sleep the night before the match, admitting: “Walking out, I forgot the warm-up. I don’t know what happened; my legs weren’t moving.”
