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Serena Williams fought hard but ultimately lost in her first singles match since 2022 on Tuesday at Wimbledon, falling to 20-year-old Australian Maya Joint, 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3, in the first round on Center Court.
There’s a common axiom in sports that “Father Time is undefeated” and that rang true in London on Tuesday night.
Williams, 44, had not played a singles match since the 2022 US Open, when she lost to Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round in what many believed would be the last match of her legendary career.
Instead, almost four years later, he returned to the grass of the All England Club.
Serena Williams lost to 20-year-old Australian Maya Joint in the first round at Wimbledon in her first singles match since the 2022 US Open. (Robert Prange/Getty Images)
And not just any court.
Center Court.
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The same court where Williams won seven of her 23 Grand Slam singles titles, an Olympic gold medal and authored some of the most dominant moments of the modern era of women’s tennis.
This one, obviously, was different.
Williams arrived at Wimbledon as a wild card and with many more questions than expectations.
How much tennis did he still have left in his legs?
Could her serve still help her overcome pressure games?
Could one of the greatest competitors in the history of the sport rally enough members of the old Serena to make this more than a ceremonial comeback?
For a while, the answer seemed complicated.
Joint, the 87th-ranked player in the world, came out strong and took the first set 6-3. After the set reached 3-3, with each player holding each of her first three serves, Joint won the next three games, breaking Serena’s serve once to take the first set.
It was a reminder that nostalgia doesn’t win tennis matches, especially at Wimbledon, where the grass can punish even small dips in movement and rhythm.
Serena Williams reacts during her match against Maya Joint during the women’s singles first round match of the 2026 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. (Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
But Williams fought back in the second set.
Despite being broken in the first game and falling 3-1, Williams eventually forced a tiebreaker. The 20-year-old Australian had a match point with a 6-5 lead in the tiebreaker, but Williams won the next three points to level the match.
Williams came out strong in the third set, earning the first break to take a 2-1 lead. But that’s when it seemed Williams’ age started to become a bigger factor.
Her daughters, Olympia and Adira, attended, along with her husband Alexis Ohanian and her sister Venus Williams. Venus is also scheduled to team with Serena in doubles at Wimbledon, giving the tournament another Williams sisters moment after years of uncertainty over whether fans would see that again.
Williams has spent most of the last four years away from the tour after saying in 2022 that she was “evolving away” from tennis. However, he never closed the door completely.
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She won Wimbledon singles titles in 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2016. She reached four other Wimbledon finals. She and Venus also built one of the great doubles partnerships in tennis history, including six Wimbledon women’s doubles titles together.
So when Williams accepted a wild card into the singles draw, it immediately became one of the biggest stories of the tournament.
That’s the power of Serena.
Serena Williams celebrates after winning a point against Maya Joint during their women’s singles first round match at the Wimbledon Championships. (Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images)
Even after almost four years without a singles match, even at 44 years old, even with no real evidence that he could compete in a Grand Slam again, his presence changed the feel of the draw.
Unfortunately for Williams, she didn’t get the storybook result on Tuesday, but this was never going to be judged as a run-of-the-mill first-round loss.
Not precisely.
Yes, Williams is out of the singles draw after losing to a woman less than half her age. But the fact that he even went to court is a story in itself.
Now comes the obvious question.
Was this just a one-off event at Wimbledon or was it the first step towards a more career in New York?
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The US Open main draw begins August 30, and if Williams wants another singles tour this summer, Flushing Meadows would be the obvious place to do it. There he played his last individual match before this comeback. That’s where American tennis fans thought they would say goodbye in 2022.
Maybe they did.
Maybe they didn’t.
Either way, Serena Williams taking the court at a Grand Slam tournament is good for tennis, particularly in the United States.
And if Tuesday was any indication, plenty of people would show up to watch her try again.
