Serena Williams will be the headline attraction on Tuesday as she steps onto the grass at the All England Club for the first time in four years, opening her Wimbledon campaign against Maya Joint in the first round.
The 44-year-old American, a 23-time Grand Slam champion, arrives at this edition with a more modest aim than usual. It will also mark her first singles appearance at a major since the 2022 U.S. Open.
Alongside her singles schedule, Williams will also play doubles with her sister Venus. She has previously celebrated seven Wimbledon singles titles, but ahead of the tournament she insisted her focus was simply on enjoying the experience.
“In general, my expectations are definitely different for the first time in my career,” she told reporters on Sunday.
“I feel like my feelings are just — not that I never enjoyed it before, or else I wouldn’t be here today — but I feel like I’m really going to enjoy being out there.”
Williams vs Joint, plus key men’s matchups
- Williams’ return to singles at a Grand Slam comes after a long absence from top-level competition.
- She faces 20-year-old Australian Joint, who has struggled on the WTA Tour, dropping 15 of 18 singles matches she has played in 2026.
- In the men’s draw, American sixth seed Taylor Fritz is set to meet British hope Jack Draper.
- Draper is working through a comeback after a prolonged spell on the sidelines.
- The 24-year-old ended his 2025 season early with an arm bone problem and then had to deal with a knee issue this year, returning to action at Eastbourne last week for the first time since April and reaching the semi-finals.
“I have to rebuild myself and I have to start again almost,” Draper said when speaking to reporters.
“I think my tennis hasn’t gone anywhere because I’ve really been dedicated every day to try and do everything possible so that when I am back on court, like now, I’m in a good place.”
Draper, who added three-time Grand Slam winner Andy Murray to his coaching team last month, holds a 3-2 lead in his head-to-head record against Fritz. He was also victorious in their only previous grass-court meeting.
Fritz, meanwhile, had been building momentum ahead of Wimbledon, reaching consecutive finals in Halle and Stuttgart earlier this month before pulling out of Eastbourne.
Elsewhere in the men’s singles, after Alexander Zverev finally secured the trophy at the French Open, the German will be hoping that major success can quickly lead to more big-title moments, likening the situation to the arrival of buses in London—wait for one, then another comes soon after.
That said, grass has not been Zverev’s strongest surface. He has never won a grass-court title, has not gone beyond the fourth round at Wimbledon, and suffered a first-round loss at last year’s tournament.
“I hope the saying (about buses) will be true for me. But again, Wimbledon has always been the Grand Slam that I struggled the most at,” Zverev told reporters ahead of his match against Belgian Alexander Blockx.
“Personally I do feel different this year. I do feel like I have a good preparation. I feel like I play good tennis at the moment.”
Tuesday schedule at Wimbledon
Centre Court (play begins at 12:30 GMT)
- Taylor Townsend (United States) vs Iga Swiatek
- Taylor Fritz (United States) vs Jack Draper (Britain)
- Serena Williams (United States) vs Maya Joint (Australia)
Court Number One (play begins at 12:00 GMT)
- Alexander Blockx (Belgium) vs Alexander Zverev (Germany)
- Lois Boisson (France) vs Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan)
- Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland) vs Matteo Berrettini (Italy)
Court Number Two (play begins at 10:00 GMT)
- Amanda Anisimova (United States) vs Lina Gjorcheska (North Macedonia)
- Otto Virtanen (Finland) vs Ben Shelton (United States)
- Elina Svitolina (Ukraine) vs Daria Snigur (Ukraine)
- Mariano Navone (Argentina) vs Flavio Cobolli (Italy)
