Serena Williams is out at Wimbledon, losing her first-round match after missing a year with an injury.
Harmony Tan of France, the 115th-ranked player in the world, knocked off Williams in three sets.
Williams remains at 23 Grand Slam titles, one short of Margaret Court’s record.
Williams, 40, was playing in her first singles match since she tore her right hamstring during the opening set of her first-round match at Wimbledon in 2021.
she came back at age 40 looking for a better memory than what she took from last year’s tournament, she achieved it, scrapping and believing through the peaks and valleys of three sets on Tuesday, but ultimately losing to Harmony Tan, a little-known but tactically astute Frenchwoman who beat Williams, 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (7), in the first round.
It was a ragged performance from Williams, the greatest women’s player of her era, as she tried to shake off the rust while attempting to solve the myriad riddles posed by the 115th-ranked Tan.
That was certainly understandable. This was Williams’s first singles match in a year, and the last one had ended in pain and tears on this same Centre Court when she tore a hamstring during her first-round match and had to retire against Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
Tan will face Sara Sorribes Tormo, a Spaniard seeded 32nd, in the second round.
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