There are many great things to remember about the heyday of Serena Williams. At her height, she was the best player ever on the WTA tour. That was a decade ago, though.
What's easy to forget among all the hoopla of her professional singles return to tennis, which began, and hopefully will not end, with the superstar's play at Wimbledon, is that Father Time has suffered no losses. She is 44 years old, and a long layoff for any player makes it difficult to have immediate success.
Even Novak Djokovic, who is five years younger than Williams, struggles to compete with young stars Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. Would he if he were 10 years younger? Maybe, and it sure would be fun to find out, but that's impossible. Reality is brutally harsh.
Serena Williams' return to singles at Wimbledon ends after one match to Maya Joint
Maya Joint, Williams' first-round opponent at Wimbledon 2026, is only 20 years old, 24 years younger than the tennis icon. That's meaningful because Joint wasn't simply in London to be a pawn in the larger Williams game. She was there to prove herself, too. That's what professionals do.
She is far from a finished product, and she made some mistakes that more experienced players won't, but what was clear is that she moves around the court with far more ease than Williams. Serena still has easy power, but in today's tennis, that doesn't mean one will definitely win a match.
Williams was also rusty, as any player would be who hasn't played a professional match in nearly four years. She wasn't only battling the spry Maya Joint, but she was battling herself too. She competed forcefully, and thankfully for Serena fans, Joint was inexperienced enough not to be able to punish her opponent for slight dips in form.
That was certainly the case in the second set. After Joint took set one 6-3, the young Aussie kept getting ahead on breaks of service from the powerful Williams, but Joint's serve was so inconsistent that she could not take advantage. That will not be the case in the future, should Serena Williams play the more ruthless Elena Rybakina, Coco Gauff, or Aryna Sabalenka.
The question tennis fans must ask is whether the novelty of Serena Williams returning to the sport makes up for what she will inevitably be affected by with age. That happens to every player, including Novak Djokovic.
Still, there was triumph in Williams' return to singles. She is a champion and doesn't quit. Maya Joint wasn't going to be able to win going away; she was going to have to take the match from Williams. After having a chance in the second set to lead 5-3, she saw Williams come back from a break down to lead 5-4.
Joint also had three break points at 5-all in set two, but the game got back to deuce. She missed several relatively early winners in doing so. The reality is that a better and more experienced player would have ended the match far sooner. Joint, to her credit, was able to get to a tie-break instead of folding. She ended up losing the second set in a tie-break and was forced to play a third set.
The third set slowly unfolded into a reminder that while Maya Joint had played matches in recent years, Serena Williams had not, at least as far as singles go. The Australian got a break of serve early, and the only question was whether she had the nerves to keep holding and take the set and match.
She could. She won the set 6-3, but didn't send Williams home. Thankfully, the tennis legend is scheduled to play doubles at Wimbledon with her sister, Venus, on Thursday. As far as her singles career goes, no one knows what the future holds.
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