Serena Williams will face Australia’s Maja Joint at Wimbledon in her long-awaited return to singles competition after four years of retirement, a match between two players born nearly 25 years apart.
Joint, a talented 20-year-old who won Eastbourne last year, has struggled badly with this year, compiling a 3-15 record. The winner of their first round match could face the in-form Filipino 25th seed, Alexandra Eala.
A meeting with Iga Swiatek, the third seed and defending champion, awaits in round three, with the Pole opening her title defence against Taylor Townsend. They have been drawn in the bottom half of the draw, which is headed by Elena Rybakina.
Williams has not competed in singles since she officially retired from professional tennis at the US Open in 2022. There had been ample speculation surrounding her comeback since December, when the 44-year-old reappeared in the drug testing pool. Williams first returned in doubles at the Queen’s Club this month, before the championships announced at the eleventh hour on Sunday that she had taken the final wildcard into the women’s singles draw.
Williams has also received a women’s doubles wildcard with her sister, Venus, a tournament they have won six times together. Serena Williams is a seven-time Wimbledon singles champion and a 23-time grand slam singles champion.
The British players Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper, meanwhile, have both been dealt tough draws. Draper has been handed a nightmare opener against the sixth seed, Taylor Fritz. The American, a semi-finalist here last year, plays some of his best tennis on grass and he has reached the finals of Stuttgart and Halle this month. Draper, who competes in the semi-final of Eastbourne later on Friday, has fallen from No 4 to No 160 in the rankings after an injury-ravaged year.
Raducanu, the women’s 30th seed, who is managing an injury niggle in the buildup to the championships, will start against Antonia Ruzic. However, she faces a potential second-round match against the former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, the highest-ranked unseeded player, and is projected to face the world No 1, Aryna Sabalenka, in the third round for a second consecutive year.
Sabalenka, the top seed, will open her tournament against Teodora Kostovic and the fourth seed, Jessica Pegula, has been drawn in her half.
Elsewhere, in the men’s draw, Novak Djokovic has been drawn into Jannik Sinner’s half of the men’s singles draw as he continues to chase an unprecedented 25th grand slam singles title. Djokovic, a seven-time champion, will open his tournament against China’s Wu Yibing. In round two he could face a slumping Stefanos Tsitsipas, who is currently ranked No 88. The two players previously have faced each other in two grand slam finals.
A month after his shocking collapse in the second round of the French Open, Sinner will begin his title defence against Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia. The third seed, Félix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, is the highest-ranked player in the Italian world No 1’s half of the draw. The French Open champion, Alexander Zverev, seeded second, and Ben Shelton, the fourth seed, head the wide-open bottom half of the men’s draw.
The British men’s No 1, Cameron Norrie, the 26th seed, will begin his tournament against the American qualifier Michael Zheng, with a potential third round match against Auger-Aliassime looming.
