US-born Australian Maya Joint put an end to the Serena Williams Wimbledon singles comeback as the 20-year-old eliminated the former No. 1 with 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3 first-round win on Tuesday.

The loss to a player coming out of an illness slump and losing 13 of her last 14 previous matches still leaves Williams breathing room after her battle on Centre Court in front of a sympathetic crowd..

The 44-year-old will play in doubles here with her 46-year-old sister Venus as the pair try to re-live their glory years when they won six Wimbledon titles together,

“I don’t know what just happened, to be honest,” the stunned winner said. “I didnt get much sleep last night. I was up to 2 a.m. thinking about it.

“During the warmup my legs weren’t moving. I don’t know how but I got off to a pretty good start,” she said after two hours,22 minutes.

“Serena is an aura, a legend. I’ve been dreaming of this moment ever since I was a little kid. It’s all pretty crazy.”

Joint said she felt her nerves trying to close out the win after blowing a second-set match point.

“She lifted her level as I was trying to finish it off. But I had the belief that I could win, so I took advantage of the moment.”

Williams, who accepted a wild card singles entry a week ago after pondering the plan, was watched by her husband and two daughters as she played an official match for the first time since the 2022 US Open.

Williams last competed on the Wimbledon grass in 2022 and has now lost in the first round in her last three appearances. She won the title seven times during her heyday as a top-ranked threat.

The 87th-ranked Joint broke Williams in the penultimate game of the opening set, claiming it a game later with a forehand winner to the corner.

The youngster started the second set with a break of the veteran but was passed as Williams got it back for 3-all.

Joint responded immediately with a re-break with William answering again and gaining confidence in the 11th game, where she overcame two double-faults and saved for break points.

The icon saved a match point in the tiebreaker and took it into a third set second later from a Joint return error.

The Aussie came from a break down in the final set and advanced to the second round on her third match point as Williams returned long.

Williams was competing here for the 22nd time and lost only her fourth career Grand Slam match in the first round against 78 victories at the opening stage.

Qualifier Otto Virtanen sent fourth seed Ben Shelton his earliest-ever loss at Wimbledon as the Finn worked for nearly four and a half hours to advance 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (8), 6-2, 7-6 (9) on Tuesday.

French Open champion Alexander Zverev polished off a love tiebreaker  with a 21st ace to convert on the first of six match points in a 6-4, 6-7 (8), 7-6 (5), 7-6 (0) defeat of rising Belgian Alexander Blockx.

The German second seed earned his third win of the season over the youngster, who is now top 30 after starting 2026 outside the top 100.

Zverev, who has exited here twice in the first round, is hoping to set a personal best on the London grass.

“I hope to have the best result of my career (here),” the 29-year-old winner said. “But I struggle on grass for some reason.

“It’s still the biggest honour in tennis to play on this (Centre) court.”

He added: “Having (the Roland Garros title) in the back of your head really helps. I believe I can play well on this surface and I’m very happy about that.”

No. 140 Virtanen stunned Shelton in what the American called “one of the toughest losses I’ve taken for sure”

The Scandinavian winner who missed the event a year ago with injury and is only now establishing rhythm in his schedule, saved a match point in the fifth-set tiebreaker.

He finished off the upset as Shelton sent a forehand return wide down the line on match point.

“I don’t know if I have a heart left, it may have jumped out of my body,” the winner said.

“This is the biggest win of my career. I’ve had a great month on grass (finals in two English Challengers).

“It feels so good to be back, I missed not playing her last year when I was injured. Now I’ve got a big win on a big court in one of my favourite places.

“I’ve been playing well for a month, I feel healthy, I’m sure more results will come.”

Shelton was still processing the heavy defeat.

“I didn’t even think I played a poor match today. Things just didn’t go my way.

“But I’m going to treat this as any other tournament and I’ll be right back on the practice courts in a couple of days.”

Fifth seed Alex de Minaur shrugged off a slow start ro defeat Roman Andres Burruchaga 7-6 (5), 6-1, 6-0 as he picked up pace in the final two ses.

The Australian reached the second round for the seventh time in eight appearances with his victory in two hours over the No. 65 Argentine.

 “It was a little bit of a slow, nervy start. Roman lifted his level and the first set was a battle. I had a slow start, and then I got back into it. From then on it was pretty tight.

“It could have gone either way. (After the first set)  I was able to kind of free up and take it to that next level, next gear. I played a really confident second and third set, which I was really proud of.”

Sixth-seeded Taylor Fritz walked onto court wearing a white suit from his clothing sponsor, defeating Dusan Lajovic 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 after the lucky loser replaced injured Brit Jack Draper in the draw. 

French hope Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard failed to capitalise on an early lead, taking a loss to Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann (6-7 (6), 7-6 (9), 6-2, 6-3.

Another home player fell, with Jack Pinnington Jones going out to Brandon Nakashima 6-3, 7-6 (5), 7-5.

He was joined by debutant compatriot Harry Wendelken, who lost to France’s Valetin Royer 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.

French-born adopted Brit saved the day with his 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 fightback over Damir Dzumhur.

Local Jakob Ferrnley joined in, advancing past Alex Michelsen in a battle from two sets to love down 3-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.

Novak Djokovic wants a serious re-think of a bloated tennis calendar, with the 24-time Grand Slam champion suggesting cutting back on the extended Masters 1000 events currently  clogging the ATP Tour..

The 39-year-old made the plea after fighting into the second round at Wimbledon, defeating China’s Wu Yibing in four sets as the tournament curfew approached Monday night.

Djokovic got in before the 11 p.m. witching hour, instigated in 2009 to give local residents in this posh, tree-shaded suburb their nighty rest.

But the energetic winner launched his call for reform after midnight, saying something had to give on the Tours due to an outbreak of player injuries – many due to overplaying.

World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz is missing the tournament after injuring his writ last April with a possible late summer return date being floated.

With all but two of the ATP Masters events now stretching to nearly a fortnight from their former seven-day classic format, the seven-time Wimbledon winner knew exactly where to point the finger.

“Tennis really needs a reset on a bigger level. Our Tours respectively are not
functioning well at all,” Djokovic said.

“A lot of things happening backstage, meetings, relationships are not going in the right direction.”

The last of the iconic Big 3 players from the past two decades added: “Grand Slams are the pillars. Grand Slams are always going to be Grand Slams, the most important tournaments we have in our sport.”

Due to the Balkanisation of tennis into several ruling camps – ATP, WTA, the Grand Slam Committee, the four majors, London’s World Tennis federation – achieving any kind of coherent change is a huge ask.

Djokovic helped form the player Organisation PTPA, which basically fizzled out and is now involved in legal actions against the Tour and Grand Slams over calendar reform and prize money distribution.

Lawyers have become the main benefactors of the squabble while progress on the issues remains a mirage. 

Veteran Djokovic, who can pick and choose his events, has stepped away from the fracus and now sits on the political sidelines.

Player discontent with back-to-back Masters events which stretch almost as long as Grand Slams is growing stronger while chronic injury absences are on the rise.

“The Tours have to look into the formats, rules, calendar – there are a lot of complaints,” he said. “I feel we are trying to Band-Aid on everything. Trying to fix something,…

“What we have to do if we want this sport to really improve ..in the next decades, is – with all the key players – see what we can do.

“There is a lot more conflict within the governing bodies of our sport than there is unity.”

Djokovic said possible solutions include attracting a younger audience – current average 61 years – by presenting a more rapid-fire, modern product.

“Young people are not going to sit for four hours and five hours and watch tennis every day. It’s a short attention span. We have to see what the market is about. How do we get to them?

“We have to change the format, the Tours, have the tournaments have shorter matches, more dynamic, be able to have something more interesting and
shorter length ’cause this is too long.”

But the veteran would leave the four majors to play their classic best-of-five-set format for men while modifying the day-to-day ATP events.