Live from Wimbledon Day 2 - Serena shines, but Maya prevails

**Catherine** (0:10)
Hello and welcome to The Tennis Podcast, live from Wimbledon and presented by Barclays, the official banking partner of Wimbledon. We are here in our position on the broadcast roof, overlooking the grounds of SW19 as fans stream out from day two of the championships. Another absolutely breathless day here at Wimbledon, and one that no matter what the result, and I'm sure you're all aware of it, it will go down in history, because it is the day that 23 time Grand Slam champion, Serena Williams, made her Wimbledon comeback at the age of 44 And everybody here, whether they were in Centre Court, or on the hill, or here on the broadcast roof, setting up a live stream while it was happening, everybody here, I think, felt like they were a part of it, despite the fact that we have just watched Serena Williams be defeated 6-3, 6-7, 6-3, by 20-year-old Australian, Maya Joint, we're giving her Sensation of the Day.

**Matt** (1:17)
For the rest of time.

**Catherine** (1:18)
For the rest of time, potentially. She saved match point, did Serena, in the second set tiebreak to take it into a third set, give everyone in the grounds, I think, what they wanted, which was as much of this match as they could possibly get. Matt, you were in Centre Court, in the press seats for all of this, from the hugely anticipated moment of Serena's walk on, right up until that incredibly charming Maya Joint interview at the end.
Tell us about the experience.

**Matt** (1:52)
I'll never forget it. It was very, very special, you know, like, we'd been waiting for this all day, the match finally arrives, and I just had this feeling of how surreal it all felt, you know, like, in a way it was like, oh, we have done this before, Serena Williams playing a tennis match, but it also just felt like, oh, we'd never done it this way before, and it's never felt like this, and, you know, there were so many things through the match that were familiar, you know, walking around the other side of the net after the very first game, I was like, we're back, and then rocking on her back leg and firing that serve, that incredible serve of hers, seeing Venus, watching her in the box, you know, all these things were familiar, but they were a little, just a little bit more special, I think, tonight, because we'd not seen them for four years.
But I think what most struck me was how quickly it felt like a normal tennis match. I think, actually, I had been excited for this, but nervous about it. I didn't know what it was going to look like. And I thought it might be very, very nervy and not great quality on both sides of the net, to be honest. I mean, we have to hold our hands up here. We have massively underestimated Maya Joint over the last few days. 100%. And I think she might have shocked me more, actually, than Serena tonight. I mean, both, I thought the quality and the standard generally was higher than I was expecting on both sides of the net. And that put me at ease quite quickly. I thought, OK, this is a tennis match. This is not just a show. And it's actually, I can get my teeth into this. I can think about this from a tennis perspective and why the points are being won. And I enjoyed that element of feeling comfortable with it as a match quickly.
And yeah, look, Serena did some incredible Serena things, finding the serve when she was match point down in that second set tie break, even going up a break at the start of the third getting everyone dreaming and thinking that maybe she might be able to win it. But Maya Joint, wow, her performance today, her poise, her level blew me away. And I just think it's kind of unfair, but I think this match will probably end up being like the lasting impression that so many people will end up having of Maya Joint, like it will be, who knows what career she'll have, but it will be hard for her to create her own story that's bigger than the part she's playing in Serena's here. And yet, she delivered, and I think people will remember how well she played. And yeah, I kind of left it feeling pretty uplifted, to be honest, by the whole thing. I loved it. I don't know whether everyone had the same take. We haven't even had a chance to talk about it. We've literally just come up here and done the show. But I had a very special time.