{"id":29148,"date":"2026-07-01T07:09:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T01:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/serena-williams-wimbledon-comeback-ends-in-defeat-but-earns-emotional-standing-ovation-watch-tennis-news\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T07:09:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T01:39:02","slug":"serena-williams-wimbledon-comeback-ends-in-defeat-but-earns-emotional-standing-ovation-watch-tennis-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/serena-williams-wimbledon-comeback-ends-in-defeat-but-earns-emotional-standing-ovation-watch-tennis-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Serena Williams&#8217; Wimbledon comeback ends in defeat but earns emotional standing ovation &#8211; Watch | Tennis News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-132103766,imgsize-144448,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/serena-williams.jpg\" alt=\"Serena Williams' Wimbledon comeback ends in defeat but earns emotional standing ovation - Watch\" title=\"Serena Williams celebrates winning a point against Maya Joint. (AP Photo)\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Ta7d_ img_cptn\"><span title=\"Serena Williams celebrates winning a point against Maya Joint. (AP Photo)\">Serena Williams celebrates winning a point against Maya Joint. (AP Photo)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Serena Williams&#8217; long-awaited return to <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/wimbledon\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">Wimbledon<\/a> ended in defeat, but the 23-time Grand Slam champion received the kind of ovation reserved for sporting royalty as Centre Court celebrated one of the greatest players in tennis history.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"4\"\/>Playing her first singles match in nearly four years, the 44-year-old American battled bravely before going down 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3 to 20-year-old Australian Maya Joint in the opening round on Tuesday. Although the result marked the end of her singles comeback at the All England Club, Williams walked off to a standing ovation after a spirited performance that reminded fans of her enduring brilliance.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"7\"\/>&#8220;It was really great to be back at Wimbledon. I never expected to be here,&#8221; Williams said in a statement released by the tournament organisers.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"11\"\/>&#8220;The atmosphere was amazing. Walking out was amazing. I definitely relished it and missed it and enjoyed the moment more than anything,&#8221; she added.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"13\"\/><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"15\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>Centre Court welcomes back a legend<br \/><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"17\"\/>The atmosphere was electric even before Williams emerged from the tunnel, with fans erupting into applause as her name was announced. Several supporters held banners reading &#8220;Welcome Back,&#8221; while another wore a T-shirt declaring her the &#8220;Unstoppable Queen.&#8221;<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"19\"\/>Competing in her first singles match since the 2022 US Open, Williams showed flashes of the dominance that brought her seven Wimbledon singles titles and 98 match victories at the All England Club.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"22\"\/>She unleashed serves exceeding 120 mph, including aces clocked at 121 and 122 mph, and repeatedly dictated rallies with her trademark power from the baseline. However, the years away from singles competition showed in her movement, allowing the 87th-ranked Joint to extend rallies and exploit openings around the court.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"24\"\/>Williams fought back superbly in the second set, saving four break points at 5-5 before erasing a match point in the tie-break with a huge serve and forehand winner to force a deciding set.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"27\"\/>But Joint seized control early in the third before sealing the biggest victory of her young career on her third match point after two hours and 22 minutes.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"29\"\/><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"31\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>Joint fulfils childhood dream<br \/><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"33\"\/>For Joint, defeating one of her sporting idols was a surreal experience.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"35\"\/>&#8220;She has such an aura, she&#8217;s just a legend and this court has so many huge names that have played on it,&#8221; the Australian said. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been dreaming about this moment since I was a little kid, so this is pretty crazy.&#8221;<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"38\"\/>It was Joint&#8217;s first Wimbledon main-draw victory, having exited in the opening round on her debut last year.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"40\"\/>Williams, who accepted wildcard entries for both singles and doubles, still has one appearance left at Wimbledon as she is set to partner her older sister Venus Williams in the doubles competition later this week.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"42\"\/><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"44\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/sports\/tennis\/top-stories\/serena-williams-wimbledon-comeback-ends-in-defeat-but-earns-emotional-standing-ovation\/articleshow\/132103765.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Serena Williams celebrates winning a point against Maya Joint. (AP Photo) Serena Williams&#8217; long-awaited return to Wimbledon ended in defeat, but the 23-time Grand Slam champion received the kind of ovation reserved for sporting royalty as Centre Court celebrated one of the greatest players in tennis history.Playing her first singles match in nearly four years, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}