Seven-time champion Serena Williams suffered a second straight Wimbledon first-round exit as she was stunned by French debutant Harmony Tan in a late-night Centre Court epic.
Serena Williams Photo: PHOTOSPORT
A year after the American retired injured from what many feared would be her last Wimbledon match, her return was eagerly anticipated but 115th-ranked Tan ripped up the script for a stomach-churning 7-5 1-6 7-6(7) win.
With the Centre Court roof closed and the time approaching the 11pm Wimbledon curfew, Tan had one match point snatched away when Williams served at 5-6 in a rollercoaster deciding set.
A weary Williams then appeared to be close to victory as she went 4-0 ahead in the tiebreak played to 10.
But Tan, who had never played a Wimbledon main draw match before, was not finished and clawed her way into a 9-7 lead before sealing victory as Williams netted a forehand.
Williams, who had not played a singles match since retiring hurt against Aliaksandra Sasnovich here last year, went through every emotion in three hours and 11 minutes of drama and put her fans through the wringer.
But in the end the rustiness of so much time away from the court proved too much as another quest for a 24th Grand Slam title came to a heart-breaking end.
Women's top seed Iga Swiatek and men's second seed Rafael Nadal have both won their opening round matches at Wimbledon.
With her victory, Poland's Swiatek went past both Serena and Venus Williams by stretching her winning streak to 36 matches.
She does not believe, however, that the long run of success puts her in the same league as the American sisters.
The 21-year-old has won six titles in a row, including a second French Open trophy this month, and with her 6-0 6-3 victory over Croatian qualifier Jana Fett on Centre Court she became the first woman in the 21st century to rack up 36 consecutive victories.
Swiatek moved past seven-times major champion Venus's run of 35 wins in 2000 after previously overtaking Serena, who has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles and registered 34 straight victories in 2013.
Iga Swiatek Photo: PHOTOSPORT
"Still when I see Serena or see Venus, they seem like... the legends," Swiatek said. "I don't consider myself a legend. They seem like the ones, they're the greatest of all time in tennis."
Elsewhere in the women's draw former world number one Simona Halep returned to Wimbledon for the first time since winning the 2019 title and picked up exactly where she left off with an impressive 6-3 6-2 win over dangerous Czech Karolina Muchova.
And Coco Gauff got off to a bumpy start and converted only four of 25 break points but those glitches were not enough to throw her off course as she reached the second round with a 2-6 6-3 7-5 win over Romanian Elena-Gabriela Ruse.
Meanwhile in the men's draw Rafael Nadal made a stuttering but rousing return to the grass, beating 41st-ranked Francisco Cerundolo 6-4 6-3 3-6 6-4 to begin his campaign for a third Grand Slam title of the year.
The 36-year-old second seed, who has not played at Wimbledon since 2019 and stayed away from warm-up tournaments with a chronic foot problem, looked to be motoring through the match until a series of unforced errors allowed Cerundolo, 23, back in.
The Argentine upped the tempo and used his booming forehand to overpower twice Wimbledon champion Nadal, who has won 20 other Grand Slam titles, taking the third set and breaking serve in the fourth.
But Nadal, who won the Australian Open in January and the French Open earlier this month, regrouped and used all his experience to fight back, breaking a now nervy opponent twice to seal the match to the delight of a packed Centre Court.
Feisty Australian Nick Kyrgios came through a five-set first-round thriller against British wildcard Paul Jubb as his fearsome serve, including 30 aces, eventually overpowered the 22-year-old 3-6 6-1 7-5 6-7(3) 7-5.
It was an unexpectedly testing examination for Kyrgios as the British outsider kept his cool in the face of the Australian's usual verbal antics, but fell just short.
Eighth seed Matteo Berrettini, runner-up at last year's Wimbledon, pulled out of the Championships after testing positive for COVID-19, he said on Instagram.
The 26-year-old Italian, who lost to Novak Djokovic in the 2021 final, became the second player to withdraw from this year's grasscourt Grand Slam due to the coronavirus after Croatia's Marin Cilic yesterday.
-Reuters