Serena Williams’ Wimbledon comeback at 44 has been sensationally dynamited on Centre Court by Australian Maya Joint, who delivered a stunning performance to out-battle and finally subdue the hugely impressive returning legend.

In the match of her life, the 20-year-old Queenslander produced the best display of her career to prevail 6-3 6-7 (6-8) 6-3, withstanding everything that the player who may be the game’s greatest could throw at her.

Joint overcame the disappointment of missing out on a match point when on the verge of a straight-sets win, then battled back after Williams had roared into a third-set lead to seal a monumental triumph in a two hour 22-minute classic.

The win left Joint, who grew up in the US state of Michigan where Williams was also born, almost speechless.

“She has such an aura, she’s such a legend,” she eventually told the crowd.

“I’ve been dreaming about this moment since I was a little kid, so this is pretty crazy.”

Although Williams may have been more than half-a-step slower and inevitably rusty after nearly four years away from singles action, she was still astonishingly impressive, almost unbelievably so, three months before her 45th birthday.

Yet her US-born opponent stayed strong, even as seemingly all the crowd were baying for a sentimental Williams triumph under the Centre Court roof, perhaps proving how much the game has moved on in the 23-time slam champion’s absence.

Joint had lost 13 of her previous 14 matches stretching back to January and had dropped to No.87 to be only the Australian No.4. She was still a cut above Williams, who threw her best punches, only to have them, for the large part, returned with interest.

By the end, though, the great champion seemed to be struggling physically, even showing the signs of a limp, in her first match since she was beaten by another Australian, Ajla Tomljanovic, at the 2022 US Open.

Earlier, the 44-year-old seven-time champion, admitted she never imagined she’d be back playing at the All England Club.

Williams, who has been away from singles action for nearly four years, said she had to give herself a pep talk just to persuade herself to take up the offer of the wild card.

“I thought I should really take this opportunity. Who knows if I’ll ever make it here again? This could be it,” admitted the 23-time grand slam champ, who reckoned that playing at Wimbledon felt just like “riding a bike” again.

Joint has waned a little during an injury-hit season in which she’s lost 13 of her past 14 matches stretching back to January.

Asked about Joint, Williams, who said she’s kept in touch with tennis in the years since she last played responded: “Yeah, actually I know her.

“I’ve watched some of her videos. I’m sure she knows my game…”

But with so many pundits suggesting she wouldn’t be here if she didn’t think she could win an eighth title, it was intriguing to hear Wiliiams’ own protestations about her lack of expectations.

“I had until Monday to decide about taking the wild card. I just wasn’t sure up until Sunday; honestly, I’m still not even sure, but we’ll see,” she said.

“I was like, ‘What’s wrong with me, Serena? What are you thinking? Are you nuts? Like you really should do this’.

“People live to be an athlete. I have this great opportunity to showcase what I do — what I do best, I suppose. Ultimately, I was like, ‘that is pretty cool, so I should do it’.

“In general, my expectations are definitely different for the first time in my career. I feel like my feelings are just — not that I never enjoyed it before, or else I wouldn’t be here today — but ‘I’m really going to enjoy being out there’.”

After a couple of weeks of preparation at Queen’s Club got her back into the swing, Williams said being back at Wimbledon was “kind of like riding a bike”.

“I expect to be nervous. I was also nervous every single match I ever played in my life. I think that showed the passion and the love and the care, that I cared about my job, whether it was the first round or the second round or the finals,” she said.

“I’ve always had some nerves. But then I just dust ’em off, then I move on.”