Howard Fendrich
Harmony Tan of France celebrates after defeating Serena Williams of the United States in the first round of the women’s singles match on the second day of the Wimbledon tennis tournament on June 28. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
Wimbledon, England (AP) — Serena Williams started and ended her comeback at Wimbledon on June 28, and 364 days after the singles match ended, she looked very much like a long-no people participating in the competition. She missed the shot, shook her head, and rolled her eyes.
During that time, Williams played very much like someone whose batting took her to 23 major titles. She hit an amazing serve and hit the ball and raised her arms in celebration.
On June 29, 2021, after an injury forced her to stop playing in her final singles match and after winning her seven majors, the 40-year-old Williams returned to the venue for her final singles match, Only 2 points away from victory. But she was unable to complete the match against her Wimbledon debutant and lost 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (10-7) to 115th-ranked Parisian, French native Cambodian Harmony Tan and Vietnamese parents.
According to tennis pros, Tan has privately trained at the Bollettieri Academy in Florida or at the home of Melanie Molitorova, the mother of five-time Grand Slam singles champion Martina Hingis in Switzerland. Her parents helped pay for her training by selling the house.
Asked if this might be her last game, Williams replied: “That’s a question I can’t answer. I don’t know. … Who knows? Who knows where I’ll be?”
Bouncing from the VIP seats on Centre Court with her sister Venus to celebrate the best score, Serena Williams came very close to exiting an upside-down match that lasted 3 hours and 11 minutes, with the final two sets of possible Retractable roof closed.
“For my first Wimbledon, it was: Wow. Wow,” said Tan, 24, who recalled watching Williams on TV as a young man.
“I was really scared when I saw the draw,” Tan said with a laugh, “because it was Serena Williams. She’s a legend. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, how do I play?'”
Here’s a sign that things were starting: Of Tan’s first 11 points, only one came from the winner she made. Others came from Williams’ mistakes, forced or unforced.
And Williams – with two black tapes on her right cheek; the reason is unclear – recovered from a 4-2 lead in the opening two innings and changed course again, allowing Tan to rely on her The spin and slice combo quickly climbed back to that plate.
She shouted in celebration when Tan hit a baseline backhand to tie the game at 4. That shot was so good that even Williams felt compelled to applaud.
Tan entered the day with a 2-6 career record in all majors. Clearly enjoying herself – and the circumstances, the moment and everything – she scored with a cross-court forehand to take a 6-5 lead, looking at her guest box and raising her fist , waving her arm to demand more noise from the crowd loudly supporting Williams.
Soon, a forehand winner gave Tan the set. At the time, it seemed reasonable to ask a question: Can Tan achieve the biggest victory of her career so far? Will Williams pull out of a major in the first round for only the third time in 80 matches (the last being a loss at the French Open in 2012 and halfway through at Wimbledon last year)?
Of course, the latter is what happened, although Williams did really well in the second set. She won a landmark match to take a 2-0 lead, scoring 30 points and 12 draws in nearly 20 minutes when Tan hit the bench with a forehand.
In the blink of an eye, it was 5-0, and Williams seemed to be on his way.
In the third set, Williams had a two-point lead when serving a 5-4 lead, but couldn’t come close.
Williams has been No. 1 for over 300 weeks, but is currently No. 1,204 in all of those times, requiring a wild card invitation from the All England Club to get into the bracket.
“If you play every week, every week, or even every three weeks, every four weeks, there’s a lot more intensity,” she said. “But having said that, I think I’ve played pretty well on some of them. Not all of them. Maybe some key ones I could definitely play better. You gotta think, if I played, I wouldn’t miss any of them. some points.”
Still, Tan held a one-point lead at 6-5, and Williams erased that with a forehand winner — starting a seven-point run that not only made the game a tiebreaker, but put her in 4 to 0 lead.
However, Tan will not go lightly. In the new tiebreaker format used at all four major tennis majors this year, she scored 5 in a row to lead 5-4: 10 first to win by 2.
At the crunch time, when Williams has often excelled on so many big stages, she has faltered. Tan passed.
