Serena Williams Loses in First Round of Wimbledon Comeback

Serena Williams lost her opening match at Wimbledon on Tuesday, falling to Maya Joint 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 in a first-round contest that marked her return to singles play. Joint, 20, broke Williams early in the first set and held on to take it 6-3. Williams forced a second-set tiebreak after trailing 1-3, saving a match point with a series of aces and extended rallies before Joint won the tiebreak.

The third set stayed close until Joint broke at 2-1 and closed out the match on her third match point. Williams received a wild-card entry for the singles draw 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. I happened to be one of those people." Williams has not said she retired, instead describing her departure from the sport in 2022 as an evolution toward other priorities. She welcomed a second child and later endorsed a GLP-1 medication. Joint said after the match that reaching the second round at Wimbledon fulfilled a childhood dream.”