![\"tennis](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Pro-Player-Gear-610X150-03.jpg\")
<\/a>tennis express pro player gear<\/p>\nIn between, it was 20-year-old Maya Joint\u2019s turn to shine, and the talented Australian made the most of her moment, handing the 23-time major champion a 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-3 defeat that brought Williams\u2019 return to the Grand Slam stage to a premature end.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what just happened, to be honest,\u201d Joint told the crowd. \u201cI didn\u2019t get much sleep last night, I was up until 2 AM just thinking about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has such an aura, she\u2019s such a legend, and this court has so many huge names that have played on it \u2014 I\u2019ve been dreaming about this moment since I was a little kid, so this is crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joint, who entered Tuesday\u2019s clash riding an 11-match tour-level losing streak, looked like a completely different player from the one who had struggled through a difficult campaign without a victory since early January.<\/p>\n
The World No.87 immediately put 44-year-old Williams on the back foot and appeared completely unfazed by the magnitude of the occasion.<\/p>\n
She drew first blood with a break for 5-3 and soon served out the opening set.<\/p>\n
Joint struck first in the second set as well, but her early advantage only seemed to inspire Williams to tap into her vast reservoir of big-match experience and legendary competitive fire. As her strokes started to crystallize, Williams twice recovered from a break down before saving four break points to hold for 6-5.<\/p>\n
In the ensuing tiebreak, vintage Williams arrived just in time. She uncorked a pair of booming serves\u2014the first saved a match point, the second, a 122 mph missile down the T, earned her set point, which she converted moments later.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe definitely lifted her level, and she played some really great tennis there,\u201d Joint said.<\/p>\n
The Hollywood script wasn\u2019t meant to be<\/p>\n
With her daughters, Olympia and Adira, cheering her on alongside sister Venus and the rest of her entourage, Williams grabbed an early break in the third set.<\/p>\n
The adrenaline would prove short-lived, however, as the seven-time champion eventually tired. Joint, regrouping after multiple disappointments, stoically marched to the finish.<\/p>\n
Joint got plenty of support from the Centre Court faithful during the two hour and 22-minute clash. It was more than she expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the stadium is pretty much what I expected,\u201d she said. \u201cA full stadium and very loud. But they also cheered a lot for me, which I didn\u2019t think they were going to do as much as they did. That was a nice surprise.<\/p>\n
\u201cStepping out on court with Serena was, yeah, something I never thought I\u2019d get to do. Yeah, I mean, I don\u2019t think I have quite processed it yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Aussie claimed five of the final six games to secure the biggest win of her career. She improves to 3-7 at the majors and will face Filipina trailblazer Alexandra Eala in the second round.<\/p>\n
Williams may be out of singles but her comeback is just beginning. She\u2019ll take the court in the following days alongside Venus as the pair make a play for a seventh doubles title at the All England Club.<\/p>\n
More to follow\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The long-awaited return of Serena Williams sent chills through Wimbledon\u2019s Centre Court on Tuesday evening. The seven-time singles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-772574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}