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.”
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.”
3 months ago
