Williams summons the old fire but cannot last as Joint downs her on Wimbledon return
The old fire was there in glimpses, but not the legs: on her return after four years away, Serena Williams roared back to steal the second set before fading, beaten 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3 by Maya Joint at Wimbledon.
Serena Williams, Wimbledon 2026 | © SPP PsNewz
Serena Williams poured everything she had into her first singles match in four years on Tuesday evening, summoning flashes of the power and fight that once made her the queen of these lawns – but after more than two hours she had nothing left, and Australian Maya Joint held firm to win 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3 and reach the second round of Wimbledon.
For long stretches it was a stirring reminder of what Williams, the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, can still produce. Her serve sometimes carried its old venom, her competitive snarl was undimmed, and in the second set she dragged herself back from the brink with a refusal to lose that turned the clock back years.
But Joint, ranked No 87, was the more consistent and incisive player over the distance, and on the sport’s grandest stage she did not flinch – handling the occasion to claim the win of her life.
Serena’s nerves in the second
Joint set the tone in the opening set, breaking once and serving it out 6-3 despite the odd flicker of nerves. The second was where Williams came alive. Joint broke at the start and led 3-1, only for Williams – now swinging freely, accepting that overhitting was the price of staying in rallies – to fight her way back. She broke for the first time at 3-3, fell behind again, then surged ahead at 4-4 with a backhand drop shot and volley.
Serving to stay in the set at 5-5, she withstood a barrage of break points, holding for 6-5 with a sliding backhand in defence and sheer will. The set went to a tie-break, and there, having spent so much to get level, Williams found just enough: she saved a match point at 5-6 and took the last two points to snatch it 8-6 and force a decider, the roar that followed echoing round the court.
But the effort came at a cost, and it fell due in the third. From around the two-hour mark, Williams began to show the signs of fatigue, and Joint pounced. The Australian broke for 4-2 as Williams could no longer hold serve, dropping a game to love amid a scatter of double faults and backhand errors, and from 2-2 the match slipped away, Williams winning only a handful of points across the closing stretch. Joint served for it at 5-3 and, after one nervy double fault on match point, completed the win at the next attempt, 6-3.
Joint : “I don’t know what just happened”
It was, by her own account, almost too much to take in. “I don’t know what just happened, to be honest,” Joint said. “I didn’t get much sleep last night, I was up until 2am thinking about it. Walking out, I forgot the warm-up. My legs weren’t moving. I don’t know how I got a good start.” She spoke of the weight of facing a player she had idolised. “She has such an aura, she’s such a legend. This court has so many huge names that have played on it. I’ve been dreaming about this moment since I was a little kid.”
She was generous about the level Williams found. “Just the start was very nerve-wracking, then trying to finish out the match as well. She definitely lifted her level, she played some really great tennis.”
For Williams, the defeat continued a difficult late chapter in a relationship with Wimbledon that once defined her. The lawns on which she won seven singles titles have offered little in recent visits: she retired injured in the first round in 2021, lost in the opening round in 2022, and now exits at the first hurdle again on her return. The fire, the power and the will to fight were all still there in glimpses; what she could not summon, after 130 minutes against a younger opponent, was the physical reserve to carry them to the finish.
Joint will next face Filipino 29th seed Alexandra Eala, the Berlin semi-finalist, for a place in the third round — and a potential meeting with defending champion Iga Swiatek beyond it.
