Serena Williams’ return to Wimbledon ends in the first round


WIMBLEDON—This Grand Slam has lost a chunk of its grandiosity.

Serena Williams is gone, one and done. something that had only happened three times before in her 80 majors appearances.

But take a bow anyway, lady.

The seven-time Wimbledon women’s champion, three months shy of her 41st birthday, gave it a valiant shot in her first singles match in 364 days. That was when she was last seen here, tearfully retiring from an opening-round match with a torn hamstring.

Not until a couple of weeks ago did it become a sure thing that Williams would participate this year, and she tested the waters with a couple of warm-up doubles matches in Eastbourne. There’s always glitter when a 23-time Wimbledon champion steps onto the court. The passage of time, though, is a reality for all athletes, even goddesses. And perhaps Williams now has to concede that the sand in the hourglass is rapidly running out.

Not that she was making any retirement declaration after losing a tug of war in three sets to Wimbledon debutante Harmony Tan, 16 years her junior, 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (10).

“That’s a question I can’t answer,” Williams said, when the hang-’em-up scenario was proposed at her post-match press conference. “I don’t know. I feel like I don’t know. Who knows? Who knows where I’ll pop up.”

If this was it to a glorious career, it wasn’t the satisfactory ending she had imagined. “Obviously not. You know me. Definitely not. But today I gave all I could do. Maybe tomorrow I could have given more.”

There will be no tomorrow, not at this tournament.

To Tan, the victory was overwhelmingly joyous.

“For my first Wimbledon, it’s wow, just wow,” the world No. 115 from France said. “I’m really surprised. When I saw the draw, I was really scared because it’s Serena Williams, she’s a legend. I was like, ‘Oh my God, how can I play?’ And if I win one game or two games, it’s really good for me.”

Williams, in fact, served for the match at 5-4 in the deciding set and led 4-0 in the tiebreak. But a crafty Tan wouldn’t go away. As Williams faltered, Tan remained rock-solid, spinning out the biggest win of her modest career in three hours and 14 minutes.

Elsewhere at SW19, Rafael Nadal continued his assault on the men’s all-time Slam record, although his 22-and-counting stack was put to the test, mildly, in a three-and-a-half-hour battle with Wimbledon newbie Francisco Cerundolo, from Argentina.

The nonpareil Spaniard was making his first appearance at the All England Club since 2019 and hadn’t played any grass prep tournaments after claiming his 14th Roland Garros title three weeks ago. “I had not put a foot on a grass court in the past three years.”

While the Center Court crowd made its fickle worship, the match tensed up when Cerundolo clinched the third set and took a 2-1 lead in the fourth. Nadal deployed all his experience from him to avert a decider, breaking to love and winning the final two games, booking a spot in the second round, 6-4, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

Nadal’s fellow champion from Roland Garros, Poland’s World No. 1 Iga Swiatek easily disposed of Croatian qualifier Jana Fett 6-0, 6-3, while William’s teenage American compatriot Coco Gauff – French Open finalist and touted by many for Wimbledon hardware — dropped a set to Romanian world No. 54 Elena Gabriela before moving on 2-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Tongues were wagging — or just hanging out in disbelief — earlier in the day when Nick Kyrgios spit at a spectator the Australian claimed had been harassing him during his five-set win over local lad Paul Jubb.

“I’ve been dealing with hate and negativity for a long time,” declared Kyrgios who, at 27, is too old now for the terrible kid of tennis label. “So I don’t feel like I owe that person anything.

“Like, he literally came to the match to literally just not even support anyone, really. It was more just to stir up and disrespect. That’s fine. But if I give it back to you, then that’s just how it is.”

The tournament also, regrettably, lost another main attraction, the red-hot Italian Matteo Berrettini, runner-up a year ago. Berrettini withdrew after testing positive for COVID and was shattered about it.

“I have no words to describe the extreme disappointment I feel,” he said, via Instagram. “The dream is over for this year, but I will be back stronger.”

Rosie DiManno is a Toronto-based columnist covering sports and current affairs for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @rdimanno

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