Serena Williams’ doubles comeback at Wimbledon is in doubt after she sustained a knee injury during her first competitive singles match in four years.
The 44-year-old lost a thrilling encounter with 20-year-old Maya Joint 6-3 6-7 6-3 late on Tuesday night on Centre Court, putting up a valiant fight before fading in the third set.
The nearly two-and-a-half hour match, which ended at 10pm local time, brought an early end to a much-anticipated singles comeback at the grand slam where she won seven of her 23 major titles.
She did not take part in the obligatory post-match press conference and it later emerged that this was due to her picking up a knee issue during the match, which required lengthy treatment from the physio.
Her agent, Jill Smoller, said: “Serena tweaked her knee at the end of the first set and was therefore excused from her media obligations by the Wimbledon and WTA medical teams. She left site that night unaided and is doing everything she can to be ready for her doubles match later this week.”
Players are required to give press conferences and can be fined up to $50,000 (£38,000) for refusing to take part, but they are permitted to skip their media duties due to injury or “reasonable grounds”, according to the grand slam rulebook.
Williams was “not able” to undertake her media duties and the All England Club did not penalise the seven-time Wimbledon champion for not attending, instead issuing a quote from the player.
“It was really great to be back at Wimbledon,” Williams said in a statement. “I never expected to be here. The atmosphere was amazing. Walking out was amazing. I definitely relished it and missed it and enjoyed the moment more than anything.
Williams is slated to return either Thursday or Friday alongside older sister Venus, with whom she won 14 grand slam doubles titles including six at Wimbledon, most recently in 2016.
Her most recent singles appearance came in 2022, when she lost in the first round to Harmony Tan, before her last competitive outing at the US Open, where she reached the third round before a loss to Ajla Tomljanovic – who Joint asked for advice before facing the American this week.
Williams only played two doubles matches, at Queen’s and in Berlin, before making her singles comeback at SW19.
