Wimbledon: Serena Williams loses first singles match in a year

WIMBLEDON, England –

Serena Williams started – and ended – her comeback at Wimbledon after 364 days out of singles competitors trying very very like somebody who hadn’t competed in simply that lengthy. She missed pictures, shook her head, rolled her eyes.

In between, there have been moments the place Williams performed very very like somebody whose strokes and could have carried her to 23 Grand Slam titles. She hit blistering serves and strokes, celebrated with arms aloft.

Returning to the positioning of her final singles match, which she needed to cease after lower than a set due to an damage on June 29, 2021, and 7 of her main championships, the 40-year-old Williams got here inside two factors of victory. However she couldn’t end the job in opposition to an opponent making her Wimbledon debut and bowed out with a 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (10-7) loss to A hundred and fifteenth-ranked Concord Tan of France.

“For my first Wimbledon, it is: Wow. Simply wow,” mentioned Tan, who recalled watching Williams on TV as a teenager.

“After I noticed the draw, I used to be actually scared,” Tan mentioned with fun, “as a result of it is Serena Williams. She’s a legend. I used to be like, `Oh, my God, how can I play?”’

Together with her older sister, Venus, leaping out of her visitor field seat at Centre Courtroom to rejoice one of the best of factors, Serena Williams was oh-so-close to pulling out a topsy-turvy match that lasted 3 hours, 11 minutes and was contested with the retractable roof shut for the final two units.

That is one indication of how issues had been on the get-go: Of the 24-year-old Tan’s first 11 factors, just one got here by way of a winner she produced. Others got here by way of errors by Williams, both pressured or unforced.

Whereas Williams – who wore two items of black tape on her proper cheek; the explanation was not instantly clear – recovered from dropping the opening two video games to guide 4-2, she reversed course once more and allowed Tan to shortly climb again into that set.

When Tan pulled even at 4-all by putting a down-the-line backhand winner, she celebrated with a yell; that shot was so good that even Williams felt compelled to applaud.

Tan got here into the day with a 2-6 profession report in any respect Grand Slam tournaments. Clearly having fun with herself – and the setting, the second, the best way all of it was going – she broke to guide 6-5 with the assistance of a cross-court forehand winner, checked out her visitor field, raised a fist and waved her arms to ask for extra noise from a crowd that was loudly backing Williams.

Quickly sufficient, a forehand passing winner gave Tan that set. At that time, it appeared cheap to ask: Might Tan pull off by far the largest victory of her profession? Would possibly Williams exit a serious within the first spherical for under the third time in 80 appearances (the earlier two had been a loss on the 2012 French Open and that mid-match retirement at Wimbledon final 12 months)?

The latter is what occurred, after all, though Williams actually performed spectacularly within the second set. She gained a monumental recreation to guide 2-0, breaking after 30 factors and 12 deuces throughout virtually 20 minutes when Tan shanked a forehand into the chair umpire’s stand.

In a blink, then, it was 5-0 and positive appeared as if Williams was on her method.

Her serves picked up tempo and have become extra correct, too: After successful simply 57% of her first-serve factors within the first set, she claimed 80% within the second. Her different strokes had been better-calibrated: After making 22 unforced errors within the first set, she made 13 within the second.

Within the third set, Williams was two factors from advancing whereas serving for the match at 5-4 however could not get nearer.

Tan was a degree from victory at 6-5, and Williams erased that with a forehand winner – starting a seven-point run that not solely despatched the match to a tiebreaker however put her forward 4-0 in it.

But Tan wouldn’t go gently. She grabbed 5 factors in a row for a 5-4 lead within the new final-set tiebreaker format adopted this 12 months by all 4 tennis majors: first to 10 factors, win by two.

At crunch time, when Williams has excelled so usually on so many large phases, she faltered. Tan got here via.