Serena’s comeback dynamited by brilliant young Aussie
Ian Chadband |
Serena Williams’ Wimbledon comeback at 44 has been sensationally dynamited on Centre Court by Australian Maya Joint, who delivered a stunning performance to out-battle and finally subdue the hugely impressive returning legend.
In the match of her life, the 20-year-old Queenslander produced the best display of her career to prevail 6-3 6-7 (6-8) 6-3, withstanding everything that the player who may be the game’s greatest ever could throw at her.
Joint overcame the disappointment of missing out on a match point when on the verge of a straight-sets win, then battled back after Williams had roared into a third-set lead to seal a monumental triumph in a two hour 22-minute classic.
The win left Joint, who grew up in the US state of Michigan where Williams was also born, almost speechless.
“She has such an aura, she’s such a legend,” she eventually told the crowd.
“I’ve been dreaming about this moment since I was a little kid, so this is pretty crazy.”
For though Williams may have been more than half-a-step slower and inevitably rusty after nearly four years away from singles action, she was still astonishingly impressive, almost unbelievably so, three months before her 45th birthday.
Yet her US-born opponent stayed strong, even as seemingly all the crowd were baying for a sentimental Serena triumph under the Centre Court roof, perhaps proving how much the game has moved on in the 23-time slam champion’s absence.
Joint had lost 13 of her previous 14 matches stretching back to January and had dropped to No.87 to be only the Australian No.4, but she was still a cut above Williams, who threw her best punches, only to have them, for the large part, returned with interest.
By the end, though, the great champion seemed to be struggling physically, even showing the signs of a limp, in her first match since she was beaten by another Australian, Ajla Tomljanovic, at the 2022 US Open.
AAP