Serena Williams was beaten in her final match at Wimbledon in 2022 (Image: Getty)
Toppling in her final match is no small feat in women’s tennis. But rather than providing the platform for greater things to come, it proved
In 2022, Williams had set her sights on dislodging Margaret Court as the most successful female tennis player in the Open era as she bid for a 24th Grand Slam.
Even at the age of 40 and after the birth of her daughter, Olympia, it was regarded as a realistic aim. After all, she had won 39 Majors in singles, doubles and mixed doubles throughout her incredible career.
For nigh on 20 years, Williams had dominated the grass court at SW19 and collected seven singles titles over the space of 14 years between 2002 and 2016. The only other woman to win multiple singles titles at this century is Petra Kvitova.
But the American saw her dreams dashed when she came up against Harmony Tan – 115th in the WTA rankings at the time – in the first round. Tan was a relatively-unknown French player outside of the tennis mainstream. She had never even made the main draw at prior to coming through the qualifiers in 2022.
However, Williams had spent a year out through injury and if there was ever a time to take advantage of that, it was . Tan got off to the best possible start, winning the first set after a tightly-contested opener.
But when Williams stormed back to take the second, losing just one game in the process, and many would’ve expected her to go on and claim victory. After three hours and 10 minutes of gruelling play in the London sun, Tan prevailed 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (7) to stun Centre Court into silence.
Harmony Tan stunned Wimbledon with her three-hour victory over Serena Williams (Image: Getty)
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Even Tan couldn’t believe what she had achieved as she heaped praise on Williams: “For my first it’s wow – just wow. It’s a dream because I saw Serena on the TV when I was young. She’s a legend.
“When you play her, I was scared. I mean, I was scared when I was on the court, but really happy to be there.”
The effort she gave was monumental, to the extent that she was forced to pull out of the women’s doubles at the eleventh hour – leading to a minor spat with her partner Tamara Korpatsch.
Tan would go on to beat Sara Sorribes Tormo in the second round and upset the home favourite in the third. But her run came to an end against the 20th seed, Amanda Anisimova.
Harmony Tan is now ranked 257th in the world and plays ITF events (Image: Getty)
After that defeat, she would never win a match at a Grand Slam again. Her most recent encounter at a Major was her first-round defeat to Bianca Andreescu at the US Open back in 2022.
In one of the more mysterious declines, the 27-year-old dropped out of the top 100 and now plays at lower-profile ITF events, where she has won three titles. Now ranked 257th in the world, Tan doesn’t have the ranking points to prove herself again on the WTA Tour and celebrates the smaller victories.
But with Williams now retired at the age of 43, she may rue the day that she bumped into Tan on the court – and not many tennis players can say they’ve had that effect on the American before.