Serena Williams draws 20-year-old Australia for opening Wimbledon match

Nine different women’s singles champions have won Wimbledon and hoisted the Venus Rosewater Dish in the last nine years, and this year’s field is as wide open as ever before.

After Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva won the first major of her career at the 2026 French Open, a tournament filled with shocking upsets and an unlikely Cinderella run earlier this month, the tennis season shifts from clay to grass for the third major of the calendar year. And there’s no clear favorite heading into the tournament which begins Monday, June 29.

In fact, the last woman to win back-to-back titles at Wimbledon was Serena Williams in 2015 and 2016.

Williams is making her return to the All England Lawn Tennis Club for the first time since 2022, playing both the singles and women’s doubles event alongside sister Venus Williams as a wildcard entry.

Wimbledon begins next week and the pathway to the women’s singles final became more clear after the main draw was released on Friday, June 26. Here’s Williams’ first-round opponent, plus our main takeaways:

Serena Williams’ first-round opponent

Twenty-three time major champion Serena Williams will face Maya Joint of Australia in the first-round of the 2026 Wimbledon tournament. This will mark the first meeting between Williams, 44, and Joint, 20.

Williams last played at Wimbledon in 2022, where she suffered a first-round loss to No. 113 seed Harmony Tan. She won the last of her seven Wimbledon titles in 2016, the same year she and sister Venus also won the last of their six doubles event at the tournament.

Joint made her main-draw debut at Wimbledon last year and was defeated in the first round by No. 19 seed Liudmila Samsonova.

Serena’s singles return is set with a first round match-up against Maya Joint 👑 pic.twitter.com/762ofcmK4w

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) June 26, 2026

Coco Gauff looks to correct course

Two-time major champion Coco Gauff fell out of the Top 5 in the WTA singles rankings for the first time since September 2023 after her French Open title defense ended with a third-round upset earlier this month. Gauff will look to go on a deep run at Wimbledon to improve her standing, where she’s had the least success in her career.

Gauff has only made it as far as the fourth round at Wimbledon, the only major where she hasn’t made a semifinal appearance. She was ousted in the first round in straight sets last year.

Gauff will face Tamara Korpatsch of Germany in the first round.

Will an American woman break through?

Could this be the year an American woman breaks through at Wimbledon in over a decade? An American woman hasn’t been the last one standing at the All England Lawn Tennis Club since Serena Williams in 2016.

The Americans have a strong contingent to change that, including No. 4 seed Jessica Pegula, No. 5 seed Amanda Anisimova, No. 7 seed Coco Gauff, No. 19 seed Iva Jovic, No. 25 Emma Navarro and No. 26 seed Madison Keys.

Pegula had a great start to her grass season, advancing as far as the Berlin Tennis Open final in the lead-up to Wimbledon. She’ll face Darja Vidmanova of Czechia in the first round. Anisimova will look to bounce back from getting double-bageled in the 2025 Wimbledon final by Iga Swiatek with a first-round matchup against Lina Gjorcheska of Macedonia.

Reach USA TODAY National Women’s Sports Reporter Cydney Henderson at chenderson@gannett.com and follow her on X at @CydHenderson.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Serena Williams’ Wimbledon return starts with match against Maya Joint