Wimbledon has long been a special stage for Serena Williams, who won seven of her 23 Grand Slam titles on its grass courts.
Her first title at the All England Club came in 2002, when she defeated her sister Venus, who was the two-time defending champion at the time.
Serena successfully defended her crown the following year and later added back-to-back wins in 2009 and 2010.
She secured a fifth title in 2012, followed by another in 2015, and then earned her seventh Wimbledon title in 2016 by defeating Angelique Kerber to match Steffi Graf’s Open Era record of 22 majors.
Williams reached two more finals after that, but played her final Wimbledon match in 2022, losing in the first round to Harmony Tan.
Looking back at Serena Williams’ final match at the 2022 Wimbledon championships
Williams had received a wildcard entry to Wimbledon 2022 after returning from a year-long absence caused by a hamstring injury.
In her opening match, she took on Tan, who was ranked world number 115 and making her debut appearance at the tournament.
The two players exchanged sets before Tan came through in a third-set tiebreak, wrapping up the match in just over three hours.
Following her win over Williams, Tan continued her strong run by defeating 32nd seed Sara Sorribes Tormo and local favourite Katie Boulter. Her campaign ended in the fourth round with a straight-sets loss to Amanda Anisimova.
Serena Williams’ response to her defeat against Harmony Tan at the 2022 Wimbledon championships
Williams hadn’t made any public decisions about her future in the game at that point. She later confirmed she’d be stepping away from tennis just before the US Open.
Asked whether she was comfortable with that being her final match at Wimbledon, Williams responded:
“Obviously not. You know me. Definitely not.”
“But today I gave all I could do, you know, today. Maybe tomorrow I could have given more. Maybe a week ago I could have given more. But today was what I could do.
“At some point, you have to be able to be okay with that. And that’s all I can do. I can’t change time or anything, so… That’s all I could do on this particular day.”
Williams finished her career at the US Open later that year, where she reached the third round before bowing out for good.
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