LONDON: Serena Williams tasted bitter defeat on her return to singles tennis at Wimbledon on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) as Rafael Nadal overcame a huge scare to progress to the second round.

Elsewhere on day two of the championships, title contender Matteo Berrettini was forced to pull out with coronavirus while women’s top seed Iga Swiatek extended her winning streak to 36 matches.

Seven-time champion Williams went down to unseeded Harmony Tan of France, 7-5, 1-6, 7/6 (10/7), in her first singles encounter since an injury forced her out of her first-round match at Wimbledon last year.

Williams, 40, won the last of her Wimbledon singles titles six years ago but reached the final in 2018 and 2019.

“I’m so emotional now,” said Tan. “She’s a superstar. When I was young, I was watching her so many times on the TV.

“For my first Wimbledon it’s wow — just wow.

“When I saw the draw, I was really scared. She’s such a legend. I thought if I can win one game, two games, that would be really good for me.”

Williams was far below her imperious best on Tuesday, struggling from the start with her form and fitness.

The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, cheered by the crowd as she made her entrance, lost the first set but broke early in the second set and went on to level the match.

But she faltered while serving for the match and faded badly in the third-set tie-break after taking a 4-0 lead.

She finished with 61 winners but 54 unforced errors in the 3-hour, 11-minute evening match.

Earlier, an off-key Nadal, already halfway to a calendar Grand Slam after winning the Australian Open and French Open, dug deep to beat Francisco Cerundolo, 6-4, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

The two-time Wimbledon champion, who has not played at the tournament since 2019, thanked the crowd for their wholehearted support.

“It’s not a surface that we play very often, and especially in my case, for different reasons, the past three years I didn’t put any foot on a grass court, so it always takes a while,” said Nadal, 36.

“It was my first match and as I know, every day is a test and today was one of these important tests.”

The 22-time Grand Slam champion played the entire French Open with his troublesome left foot anaesthetized but he has received treatment since then and was moving well on Tuesday.

Covid strikes

The early action at the All England Club was overshadowed by the announcement from Berrettini — last year’s runner-up — that coronavirus had forced him out of the tournament.

Berrettini was widely regarded as one of the biggest threats to defending champion Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon, having captured back-to-back grass-court titles in Stuttgart and Queen’s.

He is the second man to withdraw from Wimbledon with Covid in two days after 2017 runner-up Marin Cilic of Croatia also tested positive.

The Italian was a potential semifinal opponent for Nadal.