Serena Williams fightback falls short as she is beaten on Wimbledon comeback

Serena Williams following defeat in her Ladies' Singles match against Maya Joint. Pic: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire.

Serena Williams gave Centre Court reason to dream but a winning return to grand slam tennis ultimately proved beyond her.

Nearly four years after “evolving away” from the sport and having dithered until almost the last moment over whether to take a wild card, the 44-year-old entered the great arena to a standing ovation.

At an early break up in the deciding set against Australian Maya Joint – 24 years her junior – it appeared she might leave it as a winner for the first time since the 2019 semi-finals, but Williams faded thereafter and fell to a 6-3 6-7 (6) 6-3 defeat.

Having eventually decided that playing singles again in SW19 was simply too good an opportunity to miss, the American showed herself and the tennis world that she can be competitive, and she still has doubles to look forward to with sister Venus.

Meanwhile, men's fourth seed Ben Shelton crashed in the first round after “one of the toughest” losses to Otto Virtanen, but snapped back at talk of a favourable side of the draw.

Shelton squandered match point and a great opportunity for a deep run at the All England Club after he went down to world number 140 Virtanen to suffer a second consecutive early grand slam exit.

Maya Joint following her victory over Serena Williams. Andrew Matthews/PA Wire.

American Shelton had gone out in the second round at Roland Garros, but recovered from a slow start against qualifier Virtanen to establish an 8-5 and 9-8 advantage in the deciding tie-break only to lose 6-4 3-6 6-7 (8) 6-2 7-6 (9) in four hours and 21 minutes.

Shelton, who made the quarter-finals of the 2025 Championships and landed on the other side of the draw to defending champion Jannik Sinner and seven-time Wimbledon winner Novak Djokovic, said: “I’m not a dumbass. It’s not something that I look at.

“I’m not looking at my path at all. It’s just focusing on the first round obviously.

“If you’re not playing the same day as the guy, you probably know he’s not in your half of the draw. Past that I’m usually pretty locked in at these tournaments (on) who I’m playing opening match. As you can see here, anybody can come out and win.

“This is definitely one of the toughest losses of my career, coming here at Wimbledon.” 

Shelton’s compatriot Taylor Fritz wasted little time on court and eased past Dusan Lajovic 6-3 6-4 6-3, which was also the case for fifth seed Alex De Minaur, who got the better of Roman Burruchaga, the son of Argentina’s 1986 World Cup hero Jorge Burruchaga, in rapid fashion.

Fresh from his maiden French Open victory last month, Alexander Zverev dropped a set against Belgium’s Alexander Blockx before he triumphed 6-4 6-7 (8) 7-6 (5) 7-6 (0) win on Centre Court.

Corentin Moutet got himself in trouble at Queen’s Club with his expletive-laden interview and received a code violation in his defeat to Marcos Giron in SW19.

At the end of the third set, the Frenchman smashed his racket on his knee and duly earned a code violation, but did then give his broken equipment to a young spectator in the crowd in Court Nine.

Jakub Mensik required five sets to get past home favourite Toby Samuel, but Matteo Arnaldi, who was seeded 32nd, lost to Quentin Halys and Lorenzo Sonego got the better of 29th seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry.

Alexander Bublik, the 10th seed, rallied back to hold off Thanasi Kokkinakis but 27th seed Ugo Humbert was outlasted by Zizou Bergs.

Elsewhere, Iga Swiatek fought back tears after surviving a scare to begin her title defence with a thrilling three-set victory over American world number 79 Taylor Townsend.

The Polish third seed cruised through the opening set on Centre Court in just over half an hour.

But she then lost the next four games en route to dropping the second set, before edging a 21-minute service game at the start of the decider to pave the way for a 6-1 2-6 6-3 success in just over two hours.