Serena Williams to face Maya Joint in Wimbledon return after four-year absence
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Serena Williams will be competing at the Wimbledon tennis championships after she was granted a wildcard. She will face Australia’s Maya Joint in the 2026 Wimbledon first round.
PHOTO: AFP
LONDON – Serena Williams was on June 26 drawn to play Australia’s Maya Joint in the first round of Wimbledon, as she returns to singles action after four years.
The American great retired in 2022, but the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion made a sensational comeback by playing in the Queen’s Club and Berlin Open doubles earlier in June.
The 44-year-old was given a wild-card entry in the Wimbledon singles – which she has won seven times.
If Williams beats world No. 53 Joint, she could face Filipina Alexandra Eala, seeded 29th.
A second-round win would then raise the possibility of a blockbuster third-round tie against reigning champion Iga Swiatek, who starts her title defence against American Taylor Townsend.
Williams last played a singles match nearly four years ago at the US Open in what had appeared to be her farewell to the sport. But just before the Wimbledon warm-up event at Queen’s in 2026, she announced her stunning return.
She has not played at Wimbledon since losing to Harmony Tan in the first round in 2022.
Her last Grand Slam match was the US Open third-round defeat by Ajla Tomljanovic in that same year.
It remains to be seen if Williams can cope with the physical demands of singles competition after so long away from the sport.
She looked solid in her two doubles matches at Queen’s and Berlin, winning one in London with Victoria Mboko and losing her opening tie with Karolina Muchova in Germany.
Williams has not won a Grand Slam crown since the 2017 Australian Open.
She is also playing in the doubles at Wimbledon with her sister Venus.
In the men’s draw, defending champion Jannik Sinner was pitted against Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic.
The world No. 1 Italian has not played since a shock defeat by Juan Manuel Cerundolo in the French Open second round at the end of May.
Sinner, a four-time Grand Slam champion, is looking to win Wimbledon for the second consecutive time, with his main rival Carlos Alcaraz an injury absence.
Novak Djokovic, 39, starts his latest bid for a record 25th Grand Slam title against China’s Wu Yibing.
The Serb has won Wimbledon seven times, but he has not triumphed at the All England Club since 2022. He earned his most recent Grand Slam crown at the 2023 US Open.
Meanwhile, the lawyer for Marketa Vondrousova believes the former Wimbledon champion “should appeal” against the four-year ban handed down this week for missing a doping control.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency blames the Czech, who turns 27 on June 28, for failing to open her door to an anti-doping officer in December 2025.
The 2023 Wimbledon winner claimed in April she was scared when the officer rang the bell “without properly identifying themselves or following protocol”.
“I’ve been advising her that I think she should appeal, because in my view it shouldn’t end with this kind of career-destroying sanction,” her lawyer Jan Exner said. “But the final decision will be hers.” AFP, REUTERS
