WIMBLEDON/WASHINGTON, June 30, 2026 (by Michael Dickens)
When Serena Williams walks out on Centre Court at the Wimbledon Championships on Tuesday, it will be the 23-time Grand Slam champion’s first appearance at the All England Club since her disappointing 2022 loss to Harmony Tan in the opening round.
The 44-year-old Williams, born in Michigan, raised in Southern California, and now residing in Florida, is a seven-time Wimbledon champion with an impressive 98-14 win-loss record to her name. Now, unranked, she will be opposed in her comeback by 87th-ranked Maya Joint of Australia, who is just 20. By the time Joint was born in 2006, Williams had already won seven of her 23 major titles. Both share in common that their birthplace is in the U.S. state of Michigan. Beyond that, there’s not much to compare.
Williams, who is the mother of two daughters, Olympia 8 and Adira 2, has said one of the reasons for her comeback is so that they have a chance to see their mother play competitive tennis.
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During her pre-tournament news conference Sunday afternoon, Williams was asked by a reporter to describe how she anticipates her feelings might be when she faces Joint, who has struggled this season and is 3-15 in all competitions (2-13 in WTA Tour events) – including a current 11-match losing streak.
“I think my feelings will be different,” Williams said. “I think in general my expectations are definitely different for the first time in my career.
“I feel like my feelings are just – not that I never enjoyed it before, or else I wouldn’t be here today – but I feel like I’m really going to enjoy being out there. …
“I expect to be nervous. I was also nervous every single match I ever played in my life,” Williams added. “I think that showed the passion and the love and the care, that I cared about my job, whether it was the first round or the second round or the finals. I’ve always had some nerves. But then I just dust ’em off, then I move on. I definitely expect to have those same feelings.”
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While Williams had previously been given a wild card, along with her older sister Venus, to play in the women’s doubles draw, it wasn’t until a week ago Sunday that she accepted a wild card to gain entry into the singles draw, a day before the deadline.
“Well, I thought not every day Wimbledon holds a wild card for someone. I can name, probably, like a handful of people. I happened to be one of those people,” Williams said. “I thought I should really take this opportunity. Who knows if I’ll ever make it here again.
“This could be it.
“I was like, ‘What’s wrong with me, Serena? What are you thinking? Are you nuts? Like you really should do this.’
“People live to be an athlete. I have this great opportunity to showcase what I do, what I do best, I suppose. Yeah, I think ultimately I was like that is pretty cool, so I should do it.”
The bottom line according to Serena is this: “I just think you have to believe in yourself and go for any dream, no matter how wild it may be.”
Djokovic starts 21st Wimbledon campaign with victory
Seven-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia, making his 21st appearance at The Championships, wrapped up Opening Day with an entertaining and, at times, action-packed four-set victory over 102nd-ranked Wu Yibing of China, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, in three hours and 12 minutes Monday evening. It was their first career meeting and the win was Djokovic’s 103rd at Wimbledon, two behind Roger Federer‘s record of 105.
The first-round match began with the roof open, but it was closed after the completion of the second set due to darkness setting in over the All England Club.
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However, Djokovic won both sets contested with the roof closed and he improved his Wimbledon first-round win-loss record to 21-0. He is appearing in just his fifth tournament this season – and first one on grass. The victory improved his win-loss record to 10-4 for 2026. He was a finalist at the Australian Open and reached the third round at Roland-Garros.
“It felt really challenging today, Wu deserves a round of applause for his incredible performance,” the seventh-seeded Djokovic said during his on-court interview. “As for how I’m feeling, I’m feeling happy but not the freshest, I guess. It didn’t feel like the first round to be honest.”
The 39-year-old Djokovic finished with 35 winners – including 15 aces – and won 78 percent (73 of 94) of his first-serve points. He saved 10 of 11 break points he faced from Wu and broke his opponent three times in six tries. Although Wu struck 15 aces and hit 54 winners, he also made 40 unforced errors – 14 more than Djokovic – and the Serbian great outpointed his opponent 136-123.
Stefan enjoyed every moment of his dad’s victory 🤩#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/0XTovX7z9K
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) June 29, 2026
“He put me under a lot of pressure,” Djokovic said of Wu. “I’ve never faced him before; I knew that he loves hitting the ball very flat and very aggressively from the back of the court and he loves protecting the line. But he definitely surprised me with the level of every shot he had in his game from his return serves, forehand, backhand and at some point, he didn’t really have a weakness.
“I was lucky he missed the overhead and break point and I probably should have lost that fourth set as he had many break points.”
The 24-time major champion will return on Wednesday to face No. 87 Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, who advanced to the second round over 118th-ranked qualifier Hugo Gaston of France, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2, in one hour and 31 minutes on Court 16. Djokovic leads his career head-to-head 12-2 over Tsitsipas but they have not played since the 2024 Paris Olympics.
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Tuesday’s Wimbledon order of play
By the numbers
Novak Djokovic is making his 83rd Grand Slam appearance overall, extending his all-time record for the most Grand Slam men’s singles appearances. He equalled the previous record, held by Roger Federer and Feliciano Lopez, by making his 81st Grand Slam appearance the Australian Open this year before claiming the sole ownership of the record at Roland-Garros.
“Quotable …”
“I’m glad I managed to fight and stay focused till the end. It’s one of these matches that we have to dig deep.”
–No. 7 seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia, during his post-match news conference after defeating Wu Yibing of China in four sets.
