Serena Williams loses on Wimbledon return after year out

Serena Williams lost to Harmony Tan in the first round of Wimbledon.

The American great, 40, returned to the Centre Court where she had injured her knee last year with a passionate display in a loss.

Williams answered questions over her fitness with a dynamic display that put her two points from a win before Tan.

Was this her final Wimbledon?

It is almost a year to the day since Williams was forced to retire from her first-round match against Sasnovich due to an ankle injury.

The crowd might have wondered if the American great would ever return to the grass-court Grand Slam, with age and injury against her.

She admitted that she had harboured her own doubts when she came back in the doubles with Ons Jabeur.

At the same court where she has won seven of her 23 Grand Slam singles titles, Williams received a loud reception.

She had to request a wild card to enter the draw.

She showed why she wouldn't be turned down.

She roared when a smash sealed a break back after she was broken in the first game.

The pair traded breaks, with Williams hitting balls on the run and delivering some of the trademark powerful shots that have made her one of the sport's all-time greats.

The break for Tan in the 11th game allowed the Frenchwoman to serve for the set.

"I know it's very exciting but as a courtesy to both players, please be quiet during the rallies," the umpire told the Centre Court crowd.

The decibel level was raised before the start of the second set.

Williams held quickly to love and then broke in a near 20-minute second game, which featured 12 deuces, on her way to a five-set victory. Williams served out to take the set to a decider.

The American, whose only matches in the past year were last week's two doubles, broke early in the third.

Williams had celebrated as if she had won the match when she broke for 4-5 in the decider, but it was premature since she had already been broken twice.

Williams led by four in the final-set tie-break, but Tan came back to win.

There's more to come.