Serena Williams showed plenty of heart in her return at Wimbledon this Tuesday, but it wasn’t enough to get past France’s Harmony Tan in the first round.
Williams, 40, led Tan 5-4 in set three and was two points away from winning the match. But her legs grew tired, she missed shots the all-time great usually doesn’t and Tan took advantage.
Williams managed to battle to a tiebreaker set and even took a 4-0 lead at one point. But Tan rattled off the five straight points and the over-three-hour contest proved to be too much for Williams.
After the match, Williams accepted the fact that she simply couldn’t give any more than she was giving.
“I gave all I could do today,” she admitted. “Maybe tomorrow or a week ago I could have gave more but today is what I could do. At some point you have to be able to be OK with that and that’s all I can do. I can’t change time or anything so that’s all I could do on this particular day.”
What’s next for Serena? Good question.
She clearly has plenty of work to do to get back to her winning shape. But there’s no doubt she can still compete at one of the highest stages in golf.
Tan, meanwhile, is moving on to the second round. A monumental win for France’s own.