By Shrivathsa Sridhar
LONDON, June 30 (Reuters) – Serena Williams returned to competitive singles action on Tuesday amid huge fanfare after a four-year absence but the American icon could not overcome the first hurdle at Wimbledon and was beaten 6-3 6-7(6) 6-3 by Australian Maya Joint.
The 44-year-old wildcard was denied the chance to become the oldest woman to claim a singles match victory at the All England Club since Martina Navratilova in 2004, but she said she was delighted with the reception she got from adoring fans.
“It was really great to be back at Wimbledon,” she said.
“I never expected to be here. The atmosphere was amazing. Walking out was amazing. I definitely relished it and missed it and enjoyed the moment more than anything.”
Joint, who was not even born when Williams won the first seven of her 23 Grand Slam singles titles, blocked out all the noise surrounding her opponent’s much-awaited return to claim the biggest victory of her career on Centre Court.
WAWRINKA SAYS FAREWELL
“I really don’t know what to say right now. I don’t know what just happened,” said the 20-year-old.
“I didn’t get much sleep last night, I was up until 2 a.m. just thinking about it. Walking out (today), I forgot the warm-up, I don’t know what happened. My legs weren’t moving. I don’t know how I got a pretty good start in the match.
“She has so much aura, she’s such a legend. This court has had so many huge names play on it. I’ve been dreaming about this since I was a little kid so this is pretty crazy.”
While Williams can look forward to the doubles tournament with her older sister Venus, Joint will take on Filipino 29th seed Alexandra Eala next.
Meanwhile, as the day wound to a close, Stan Wawrinka, 41, bid goodbye to fans in his final Wimbledon appearance after a marathon 6-7(7) 7-6(16) 7-6(7) 7-6(5) defeat by Matteo Berrettini.
SWIATEK SURVIVES SCARE
Well before the Centre Court spotlight shifted to Williams’ singles comeback match, defending women’s champion Iga Swiatek overcame a wobble to reach the second round with a 6-1 2-6 6-3 win over powerful American Taylor Townsend.
“I’m happy I could get through a match like that because I got quite tense in the second set and I was able to come back to my game,” said Swiatek, fighting back tears.
“These are the moments where you feel that you did your job because it’s not hard when everything goes your way and you’re so confident that everything goes in.”
American Amanda Anisimova, who was crushed by Swiatek in last year’s final, cruised to a 6-3 6-2 win over qualifier Lina Gjorcheska in 61 minutes before fellow former finalists Jasmine Paolini and Karolina Pliskova also progressed to round two.
“It’s not easy to play a qualifier,” Anisimova said of the challenge of taking on Gjorcheska, who became the first player from North Macedonia to compete in a Grand Slam main draw.
“I feel like they’ve had a few matches under their belt. She was playing really good tennis today. I’m happy to be through to the next one.”
RELIEF FOR PAOLINI
Italian Paolini was a lot more relieved after the 2024 finalist dropped the opening set against Robin Montgomery before grinding out a 0-6 6-4 7-5 victory, while 2021 finalist Pliskova took out fellow Czech Tereza Valentova 6-3 6-4.
Former champion Elena Rybakina battled past Lois Boisson 6-4 1-6 6-3 but it was the end of the road for Ukrainian eighth seed Elina Svitolina, who fell to compatriot Daria Snigur 7-5 6-2.
On the men’s side, Alexander Zverev, the latest member of the Grand Slam club following his French Open triumph, defeated Alexander Blockx 6-4 6-7(8) 7-6(5) 7-6(0).
There was joy for Grigor Dimitrov a year after he retired in tears with a pectoral injury against Jannik Sinner in the fourth round as the wildcard beat Dane Sweeny 7-6(4) 6-3 7-5.
Fourth seed Ben Shelton became the highest-ranked player to fall in the men’s first round, falling to 140th-ranked Finnish qualifier Otto Virtanen who prevailed 6-4 3-6 6-7(8) 6-2 7-6 (11-9) in a match lasting nearly 4-1/2 hours.
Shelton’s compatriot and sixth seed Taylor Fritz had little trouble seeing off Serbian lucky loser Dusan Lajovic 6-3 6-4 6-3 with fellow Americans Patrick Kypson, Marcos Giron and Zachary Svajda joining him in the next round.
There was good news for local fans after a disappointing opening day, with the likes of Katie Swan, Arthur Fery and Jacob Fearnley advancing along with Australia’s Alex de Minaur, an honorary Briton after his engagement to Katie Boulter.
“Today was tough for Katie but she does so incredibly well to put these tough moments behind her,” De Minaur said about his partner’s 6-4 6-2 defeat by Tyra Caterina Grant.
“For me it was trying to stay in my lane in a way and focus on what I needed to do. But it’s not easy as you want the whole household to keep winning.”
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar, Pritha Sarkar, Martyn Herman, Alan Baldwin, Clare Lovell and Amy-Jo Crowley in London; Editing by Alison Williams)
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