LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Serena Williams suffered a dramatic first-round defeat on her return to singles tennis at Wimbledon on Tuesday as she succumbed to inspired Australian youngster Maya Joint, while Iga Swiatek started her title defense with a nervy win.

Williams lost 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 6-3 on Centre Court in her first professional singles match since “evolving away” from tennis in 2022, despite threatening a comeback after saving a match point in the second set.

“It was really great to be back at Wimbledon. I never expected to be here,” said the 44-year-old in a short statement, after declining to undergo her media duties.

Williams showed glimpses of her vintage best but ran out of steam after breaking first in the decider, slipping to a third consecutive first-round exit at the All England Club, after suffering the same fate in both 2021 and four years ago.

“I didn’t get much sleep last night; I was up until 2 a.m. last night just thinking about it,” the 20-year-old Joint said.

“The start was very nerve-wracking. Trying to close out the match, she definitely raised her level.”

Williams announced her shock return to the sport earlier this month and had played two doubles matches ahead of Wimbledon.

The 23-time Grand Slam champion became the second-oldest player to feature in the Wimbledon women’s singles in the Open era, after nine-time champion Martina Navratilova, who reached the second round aged 47 in 2004.

Williams was given a rousing reception when she stepped on to court, but the crowd could not push her to a famous victory, despite rapturous celebrations when she won the second set.

The American legend won the last of her seven Wimbledon titles a decade ago, and her last Grand Slam triumph came at the 2017 Australian Open, when she was pregnant with her first child.

Joint, who had lost 13 of her last 14 matches and slipped to 87th in the WTA rankings, rediscovered the game which had taken her into the top 30 as recently as February.

She will next face Filipina rising star Alexandra Eala after the 29th seed dropped just three games in her first-ever Wimbledon win over Renata Zarazua.

Serena will turn her attention to her bid to win a seventh Wimbledon women’s doubles title alongside 46-year-old sister Venus.

Reigning champion Swiatek recovered from a second-set blip to battle past Taylor Townsend 6-1, 2-6, 6-3.

Last year, she bounced back after losing her French Open crown by romping to a maiden Wimbledon title but she was far from her best 12 months on against Townsend.

The Pole made 16 unforced errors in a poor second set, but managed to take a tense decider to set up a second-round meeting with former world number one Karolina Pliskova on Thursday.

“I don’t think I won any three-set match this year, so happy to do it here as it means a lot to be opening the court here as defending champion,” said third seed Swiatek.

Second seed Elena Rybakina, who could take the world-number-one ranking from Aryna Sabalenka next week, also had to dig deep to battle past 2025 French Open semi-finalist Lois Boisson in three sets.

The 2022 Wimbledon champion will next face the United States’ Caty McNally for a Last-32 berth.

Amanda Anisimova began her bid to go one better than last year, when she lost the final 6-0, 6-0 to Swiatek, cruising to a straight-sets win on Tuesday against Lina Gjorcheska of North Macedonia.