It took until the eighth game of her first Wimbledon match in four years for the Serena Williams of old to materialise.
Break point down against 20-year-old Maya Joint, Williams let out a primal roar as her opponent went long. She obviously still had her trademark champion’s desire – why else would she have gone to the effort of making a comeback after four years away? – but this was it in the flesh. The Centre Court crowd recognised it and erupted with her, spurring her on.
It was not a vintage Williams performance on the scale of some of her greatest triumphs. It was hardly expected to be, at the age of 44, after four years out of the sport. A gripping two-hour and 22-minute fight, a thriller under the Centre Court lights, ended in defeat, 3-6 7-6(6) 3-6.
But the grit and tenacity was there, along with – albeit only at times – the serve, the fizzing returns, the ruthlessness, increasingly apparent as she pulverized Joint’s second serve and put herself on the front foot in the second set. And it will have proved to her, if she had any private doubts about this comeback, that there is fight in the old dog yet.
“I didn’t get much sleep last night, I was up till like 2am thinking about it,” Joint said. “I forgot the warm-up, my legs weren’t moving. She has such an aura, she’s such a legend. I’ve been dreaming about this moment since I was a little kid, so this is crazy.”
When the draw was announced Williams no doubt would have felt rather relieved. Joint was champion on the Eastbourne grass last year and has been ranked as highly as 28th in the world, but arrived at Wimbledon low on confidence after losing her last 11 tour-level matches and falling to 53rd in the rankings.
The 20-year-old, like all players of her age, grew up idolising Williams; by the time she was born the American was already a seven-time major winner. Walking out into the deafening roar of the Centre Court crowd could have given the young Australian pause.
But although early nerves were evident she refused to let the occasion, or the gravitas of her opponent, overwhelm her. She chose to serve first and immediately made her intentions known, playing aggressively and trying to dictate in the rallies, matching the 23-time grand slam champion for power.
Williams appeared to be moving comfortably in the opening set but the rust was evident as shots she once made with ease were overhit or shanked wide. But the ease and grace of her service motion was back, and there were flashes of her old brilliance in a 121mph ace down the T to hold at 3-2, in the occasional glorious service winner planted miles out of reach.
But her old killer edge was missing, and her serve went awry at the worst possible time. What was there in abundance was the old ferocity, the unshakeable desire to win. A roar as she saved a first break point in the eighth game was pure Serena – “that’s the war cry”, was the verdict from an admiring punter near me. But two double faults in the same game, coupled with more flat, brutal hitting from Joint, handed over the break.
Joint cut a composed figure on the court and appeared entirely focused on her own side of the net, but having taken the first set she grew in confidence. Moving the 44-year-old Williams around the court was always going to be the best strategy and she leaned into it more, pinning her at the baseline and firing fast, flat groundstrokes beyond her reach.
Williams’s troubles on serve continued as she followed an ace with a double fault, and Joint backed up an early break by wrestling herself out of trouble at deuce, planting the winner in behind Williams with the American marooned in the centre of the court. Trying to keep the points short, and changing direction, brought some success, but Joint battled back, saving two more break points with clinical serving and as Williams continued to leak errors, spraying long off the forehand wing.
But momentum swung back towards the American great as Joint faltered on serve. There were three breaks in succession as both players struggled to establish a foothold in a gruelling second set, with Centre Court erupting as Williams, using the drop shot to great effect, broke again for 4-4, then put herself in front for 5-4.
Perhaps the nerves got to Joint; perhaps Williams needed some time to grow into the match, to rediscover her old familiarity on the luscious grass. Joint spurned chances to break at 5-5 and a match point in a tense tiebreak, with Williams firing down an ace to set up a set point, then converting immediately as Joint fired long.
Joint scrambled out of a difficult service game to start the decider but the story of the second set continued into the third as she failed to take her chances, firing long at break point down, and Williams moved in front for the first time.
It proved short-lived; Williams screamed in frustration as she hit long for deuce on her serve, and Joint broke back with a perfect lob onto the baseline. She won three games on the bounce as the effort began to tell for Williams; the Australian broke again to love as Williams shanked the ball into the net, and Joint pushed on. Asked to serve it out, she double-faulted at 40-30 up. A kick serve out wide gave her another chance, and Williams hit long to bring her Wimbledon to an end.
But perversely, in many ways, this was a good result for Williams: a strong enough performance to prove that she is still competitive, and a frustrating enough defeat that she will want more. As the match ticked into its third hour Centre Court remained full, utterly engrossed, willing its old heroine on. Fears of this being an embarrassment, a grim addendum to her legacy, proved unfounded.
So the old fire has been reignited. The question now is, how far can she go?
