Serena Williams loses Wimbledon comeback match to Maya Joint

Serena Williams lost her first professional singles match in nearly four years on Tuesday, falling to 20-year-old Australian Maya Joint 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3 in the opening round of Wimbledon on Centre Court.

Williams, 44, had not played singles since the 2022 US Open, where she announced her intention to step away from tennis. She returned to Wimbledon on a wild card invitation after playing doubles in two warmup events in the preceding weeks.

Joint, ranked 87th in the world, won the first set comfortably before Williams forced a tiebreak in the second, saving a match point to take the set and force a decider. In the third, Williams broke early and held a game point to go up 3-1 before Joint won four consecutive games to serve out the match.

Williams did not meet with media after the match. In a statement released through Wimbledon organisers, she said: "It was really great to be back at Wimbledon. I never expected to be here. The atmosphere was amazing. Walking out was amazing. I definitely relished it and missed it and enjoyed the moment more than anything."

Joint, who had lost 11 consecutive tour-level matches entering the contest, said she barely slept the night before. "I don't know what just happened, to be honest. I was up until like 2am just thinking about it," she said.

Williams's younger daughter Adira, almost 3, watched her mother play singles for the first time from the front row of the players' box alongside her 8-year-old sister Olympia. Williams was given a wild card for doubles at Wimbledon as well and is scheduled to play that event alongside her sister Venus later in the week.

She has not confirmed whether she will enter the US Open, the next Grand Slam, which begins August 30.