Serena Williams unsurprisingly looked pretty rusty to start off the match against Maya Joint, 24 years her junior, but she grew into the game as it wore on. She lost the first set 3-6 but then forced the second into a tie-breaker. She first saved match point in it and then went on to win the tie-breaker itself to force the match into a deciding set.
Serena then took the lead for the first time in the match but, as the clock ticked past two hours in the match, the effort started to show on the 44-year–old. She ended up losing three sets in a row to go from 2-1 up to 4-2 down. While she bit back to make it 4-3, Joint managed to see it through in the end. Serena was all smiles as she walked off the Centre Court to rapturous applause.
While it was the end of the adventure for her in singles, Serena will be back a couple of days later with her sister Venus in a reunion of the legendary Williams sisters doubles pair that won 14 Grand Slam titles – six of them at Wimbledon – and three Olympic gold medals. They will be facing Camilla Osorio of Colombia and Solana Sierra of Argentina on Thursday.