London (AFP) - Serena Williams will return to singles tennis for the first time in four years when the American legend steps onto Centre Court at Wimbledon on Tuesday, after Iga Swiatek started her title defence with a nervy win.

Williams plays a professional singles match for the first time since “evolving away” from tennis in 2022 when she takes on Australian youngster Maya Joint in the first round.

The 23-time Grand Slam champion announced her shock return to the sport earlier this month and has played two doubles matches since, winning one and losing one.

The tie against Joint will be the 44-year-old’s first appearance in singles since losing to Ajla Tomljanovic in the 2022 US Open third round.

“I expect to be nervous. I was also nervous every single match I ever played in my life,” said Williams, who will also play in the doubles alongside older sister Venus.

“I’ve always had some nerves. But then I just dust ‘em off, then I move on. I definitely expect to have those same feelings.”

Serena could not have been given a much kinder draw than facing the 20-year-old Joint, who has lost 13 of her last 14 matches and slipped to 87th in the WTA rankings.

The winner will face Filipina rising star Alexandra Eala, who partnered Venus Williams in doubles in Bad Homburg last week, after the 29th seed dropped just three games in her first-ever Wimbledon win over Renata Zarazua.

Serena will become the second-oldest player to feature in the Wimbledon women’s singles in the Open era, after nine-time champion Martina Navratilova who reached the second round aged 47 in 2004.

The American won the last of her seven Wimbledon titles a decade ago and her last Grand Slam triumph came at the 2017 Australian Open, when she was pregnant with her first child.

- Swiatek, Rybakina survive scares -

Reigning champion Swiatek recovered from a second-set blip to battle past Taylor Townsend 6-1, 2-6, 6-3.

Last year, she bounced back after losing her French Open crown by romping to a maiden Wimbledon title but she was far from her best 12 months on against Townsend.

The Pole made 16 unforced errors in a poor second set, but managed to take a tense decider to set up a second-round meeting with former world number one Karolina Pliskova on Thursday.

“I don’t think I won any three-set match this year, so happy to do it here as it means a lot to be opening the court here as defending champion,” said third seed Swiatek.

Second seed Elena Rybakina, who could take the world-number-one ranking from Aryna Sabalenka next week, also had to dig deep to battle past 2025 French Open semi-finalist Lois Boisson in three sets.

The 2022 Wimbledon champion will next face the United States’ Caty McNally for a last-32 berth.

Amanda Anisimova began her bid to go one better than last year, when she lost the final 6-0, 6-0 to Swiatek, cruising to a straight-sets win on Tuesday against Lina Gjorcheska of North Macedonia.

Two-time semi-finalist Elina Svitolina bowed out at the first hurdle, beaten comfortably by fellow Ukrainian Daria Snigur.

- Zverev battles through -

Alexander Zverev came through a tricky first-round test against Belgian youngster Alexander Blockx with a 6-4, 6-7 (⁸⁄₁₀), 7-6 (⁷⁄₅), 7-6 (⁷⁄₀) victory in his first Grand Slam match since winning the French Open.

The German second seed, who took advantage of the shock early exits of Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic to clinch his long-awaited maiden major title at Roland Garros, is hoping for a deep run at Wimbledon for the first time.

Zverev has never got past the last 16 in nine previous appearances at the All England Club.

US fourth seed Ben Shelton was dumped out by Finland’s Otto Virtanen, missing a match point before losing ¹¹⁄₉ in a fifth-set tie-break.

American sixth seed Taylor Fritz, who reached the semi-finals last year, eased past Dusan Lajovic in straight sets, while fifth seed Alex de Minaur also wasted little time in beating Roman Andres Burruchaga.