Maya Joint Defeats Serena Williams in Wimbledon First-Round Singles Match

Serena Williams lost her opening singles match at Wimbledon on Tuesday, falling to Maya Joint 6-3, 6-7, 6-3. The result ended Williams' return to the singles draw after 1,397 days away from the format. Joint, 20, broke early in the first set to lead 6-3.

Williams trailed 1-3 in the second set before forcing a tiebreak, where she saved a match point with aces and extended rallies. Joint won the tiebreak and then broke at 2-1 in the third set to close the match on her third match point. Williams received a wild-card entry after agreeing to play doubles with her sister Venus.

The pair hold 14 major doubles titles, six of them at Wimbledon. Williams last won the tournament in 2016 and reached the first round in 2022 before stepping away. She described the decision to accept the singles wild card as last-minute.

"I thought not every day Wimbledon holds a wild card for someone," she told the media Sunday. "I can name probably, like, a handful of people. " Williams has not said she retired and described her 2022 departure as an evolution toward other priorities.

Williams made her official comeback this month in doubles at the HSBC Championships with Victoria Mboko. The pair won their first-round match but exited in the second round after Mboko was injured.