Experience took on youth Tuesday morning at Wimbledon’s Centre Court as 44-year-old tennis legend Serena Williams played her first singles match in nearly four years, against 20-year-old Australian Maya Joint.
Advantage: youth, as Joint pulled out a 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3 win and advanced to play 29-seed Alexandra Eala of the Philippines — a 6-1, 6-2 winner over Renata Zarazúa of Mexico — on Thursday.
“I don’t know what to say,” Joint said on court after the match. “I don’t know what just happened.”
As she and Joint entered the court, Williams received a standing ovation from a crowd that included her husband, Alexis Ohanian, their daughters, Olympia, 8, and Adira, 2, and her sister/doubles partner, Venus Williams.
A similar ovation came more than 90 minutes later after Williams clinched a tiebreaker to win the second set and force a third. Williams celebrated with a fist pump.
Williams has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, one shy of Margaret Court’s all-time record (Court won 13 of her 24 Grand Slams before 1968, when only amateurs were allowed to compete in those tournaments). She has seven Wimbledon titles (two shy of Martina Navratilova’s record) and entered Tuesday’s match with a 98-14 overall record at the tournament.
Although unranked following her lengthy hiatus, Williams spent 319 weeks at No. 1 on the WTA’s singles rankings, including 186 straight weeks from February 2013 to September 2016. She retired in September 2022 following a loss to Australian Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round of the U.S. Open.
Williams returned to professional tennis in doubles earlier this month. She and Canadian Victoria Mboko won their opening match at the HSBC Queen’s Club Championships in London before having to drop out because of an injury to Mboko. Williams and Czech star Karolína Muchová lost their opening match at the WTA 500 Berlin Open.
Williams and sister Venus were given a wild card to play Wimbledon doubles, with their opening match scheduled for later this week. The duo has won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles together, including six at Wimbledon.
Joint entered Tuesday’s match with a slightly more modest resume. She has won her opening matches at each of the last U.S. Opens, which account for all of her singles wins in Grand Slam tournaments.
In February, Joint ranked a career-high No. 28 in the world but has dropped to No. 87 after going 3-15 in singles matches so far in 2026. She is 131-83 overall with two WTA tournament singles wins, both in 2025.
