{"id":107817,"date":"2026-07-01T08:26:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T12:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=107817"},"modified":"2026-07-01T08:28:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T12:28:24","slug":"serena-williams-suffers-knee-injury-during-wimbledon-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/07\/01\/serena-williams-suffers-knee-injury-during-wimbledon-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Serena Williams Suffers Knee Injury During Wimbledon Return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night, after a four-year hiatus, Serena Williams took to a tennis court for a singles match when she faced Maya Joint in the first round at Wimbledon<\/a>. It was a match that had the entire tennis world watching, as expected for Williams\u2019 long-awaited return.<\/p>\n

Williams lost the opening set and, facing match point, raised her level under pressure, as she did so often throughout her career, to win the second set against the young Australian. While Joint ultimately went on to win the match in three sets<\/a>, with Williams looking physically spent by the end, the 23-time Major champion acquitted herself far better than most had expected.<\/p>\n

Serena Williams Suffers Knee Injury<\/h2>\n

While everything initially appeared fine after the match, alarm bells rang when the American did not take part in her post-match press conference, instead releasing the following statement through the tournament<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really great to be back at Wimbledon. 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.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Many wondered why the legend missed her press conference after the defeat, but it has now been revealed by Williams\u2019 agent, Jill Smoller, that she was unable to attend because she suffered a knee injury during the match<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSerena tweaked her right 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.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Doubles appearance now in doubt<\/h3>\n

The news comes as a significant blow for both Williams and the tournament, as she is scheduled to play doubles alongside her sister<\/a>, Venus Williams, on Thursday. That appearance has now been thrown into doubt following this physical setback.<\/p>\n

There had always been concerns about Williams returning on grass, a surface that has historically caused her injury problems throughout her career. Although she appeared to be labouring physically toward the end of the match, there were no obvious signs that she had sustained an injury. The revelation therefore partially overshadows what was, despite the result, an overwhelmingly positive comeback performance for the 44-year-old.<\/p>\n

Fans and the tournament will now be hoping the issue is nothing serious and is simply a consequence of returning to professional tennis after such a long layoff. If so, Serena and Venus Williams could still take to the court together on Thursday, where another packed crowd will be eagerly awaiting their return.<\/p>\n

Main Image Credit: Susan Mullane-Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night, after a four-year hiatus, Serena Williams took to a tennis court for a singles match when she faced Maya Joint in the first round at Wimbledon. It was a match that had the entire tennis world watching, as expected for Williams\u2019 long-awaited return. Williams lost the opening set and, facing match point, raised […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5608,"featured_media":107631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,6,4],"tags":[43844,42392,25,70],"class_list":["post-107817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wimbledon","category-wta","tag-2026-wimbledon","tag-maya-joint","tag-serena-williams","tag-venus-williams"],"modified_by":"Zain Mustafa","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5608"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107817"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107820,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107817\/revisions\/107820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}