Serena’s comeback dynamited by brilliant young Aussie

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.

Meanwhile, Alex de Minaur has enjoyed the perfect launch to his latest bid to reach a grand slam final with an encouraging win over Argentina’s Roman Andres Burruchaga.

The Australian No.1 was stretched by an hour-long opening set but once he shook off his nerves, got his feet moving and found his groove, he raced to victory on Tuesday.

Winning 12 games out of 13 after the first set tiebreak, the 27-year-old earned a 7-6 (7-5) 6-1 6-0 victory, wrapping up the final two sets in 52 minutes.

“A little bit of a nervy start,” said the fifth seed. “Never easy starting an incredible tournament like Wimbledon, but as the match went on, I played better and better.

“I love being here. I really want to do well here. It’s about getting started and I’m glad I got through that. I’m super-stoked to be in the next round.

“I love the grass. I love these courts. I am at my most dangerous when I am aggressive and it’s up to me to be aggressive and try and dictate. Next time, hopefully I can do that from the start.”

Coming on to court 3 after his fiancee, British No.2  Katie Boulter, had slumped to a shock defeat to an Italian qualifier, de Minaur seemed to inherit her disappointment.

Suffering an early break he quickly found himself 3-0 down against a resourceful opponent who belied the South American cliche of clay court-bred baselining.

It was 40 years and a day since Burruchaga’s father, Jorge, scored the winning goal in the 1986 World Cup final, a 3-2 victory for Argentina over West Germany, and on his Wimbledon main draw debut the son seemed to draw inspiration from history.

De Minaur scrapped his way to a tie-break and, helped by a lucky net cord and Burruchaga double-faulting at 4-4, he managed to win it.

That released the nerves and de Minaur, seizing the initiative, suddenly ran away with the tie to book a second-round date with idiosyncratic French southpaw Adrian Mannarino.

Ranked 40, the 38-year-old is a dangerous opponent on grass but de Minaur has a 5-1 win record against him.

De Minaur was the first Aussie men’s winner after an opening day when Aleksandar Vukic and Adam Walton went out.

Rinky Hijikata had been one set-all and 5-3 up in the third against Dutchman Jesper de Jong when dew and poor light forced a suspension on Monday night.

Hijikata was broken soon after Tuesday’s resumption, but broke back to take the third 7-5. However, he lost the next two sets 6-4 6-3 to suffer a bleak loss.

There was heartbreak, too, for Thanasi Kokkinakis who twice led 10th seed Alexandre Bublik only to fade away, losing 4-6 6-3 7-6 (12-10) 6-3 6-4.

When the South Australian won a gripping 22-point third set tie-break it seemed a notable victory was in his grasp but in the final hour of a 3:39 duel the Kazakh proved too consistent.

Daria Kasatkina was Australia’s lone first day victor but will be joined in the women’s second round by Kim Birrell who defeated Russian qualifier Alina Korneeva 6-3 0-6 6-2.

However Talia Gibson went out. After a torrid opening set, she had fought back to level against 21st-seed Marie Bouzkova but the Czech’s greater quality told in the third as the Perth player went down 6-1 3-6 6-2.