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Ben Shelton was edged out by Finland’s Otto Virtanen while Taylor Fritz and Alex de Minaur went straight ahead.
Published on 30 Jun 2026
Serena Williams suffered a stunning defeat on her first tour back to tennis itself at Wimbledon where she lost to young Australian Maya Joint, while Iga Swiatek began defending her title with a magical victory.
Williams lost 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 6-3 on Center Court in her first professional match on Tuesday since “retiring” from tennis in 2022, although she threatened to make a comeback after holding a point in the second match.
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list of 4 itemsend of series
The 44-year-old shared a photo of himself excellent vintage but it ended after I made the first decision, going down for the third consecutive trip out of the All England Club, having met the same in 2021 and four years ago.
A 20-year-old boy named Joint said: “I didn’t sleep much last night, I woke up until 2:00 last night just thinking about it.
“The start was very stressful. In trying to close the game, he really raised his level.”
Williams announced him afraid to return to the game earlier this month and played two doubles matches ahead of Wimbledon.
The 23-year-old Grand Slam champion became the second oldest Wimbledon women’s singles player in the Open era, after nine-time champion Martina Navratilova who reached the second round at the age of 47 in 2004.
Williams received a standing ovation when she stepped onto the court, but the crowd could not force her to win, despite the ecstatic celebrations when she won the second set.
She was enthusiastic about standing on the court before the game started under the closed roof and several of her fans carried signs with messages such as “Welcome Back” and one wore a T-shirt with the words “Unstoppable Queen.”
The American legend won the last of her seven Wimbledon titles a decade ago and her last Grand Slam victory came at the 2017 Australian Open, when she was pregnant with her first child.
Joint, who has lost 13 of her last 14 matches and dropped to 87th in the WTA rankings, regained the match that took her into the top 30 as recently as February.
She will also face Filipina star Alexandra Eala after the 29th dropped just three games to her first Wimbledon win against Renata Zarazua.
Serena will focus on her quest to win a seventh Wimbledon women’s title alongside 46-year-old sister Venus.
Swiatek, Rybakina survive the shock
Swiatek, the champion, recovered in the second match to beat Taylor Townsend 6-1, 2-6, 6-3.
Last year, he bounced back after losing his French Open crown with a jump Wimbledon title but he was far from his best 12 months against Townsend.
The Pole made 16 unforced errors in a poor second set, but managed to make a solid decision to set up a second meeting with former world number one Karolina Pliskova on Thursday.
“I don’t think I’ve won three sets this year, I’m happy to do it here because it means I’m opening the court here as a defender,” said third-seeded Swiatek.
Second seed Elena Rybakina, who could take over world number one from Aryna Sabalenka next week, also had to dig deep to battle 2025 French Open semifinalist Lois Boisson in three sets.
Amanda Anisimova started her quest to go one better than last year, when she lost the final 6-0, 6-0 to Swiatek, going straight on Tuesday against North Macedonia’s Lina Gjorcheska.
Zverev won
French Open champion Alexander Zverev he passed the first round test against young Belgian Alexander Blockx with a 6-4, 6-7 (8/10), 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/0) victory.
Second seed Germany, who took advantage of the early exit of Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic to claim his long-awaited first title at Roland Garros, hoping to get past the last 16 at Wimbledon for the first time.
Fourth seed Ben Shelton was dumped out by Finland’s Otto Virtanen, missing one point before losing 11/9 in the fifth break.
American sixth seed Taylor Fritz, who reached the semi-finals last year and fifth seed Alex de Minaur both advanced in straight sets.
