Ten years after her most recent Wimbledon singles title, Serena Williams is back, and her first opponent is commentators writing her off.

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To launch a comeback at 44, nearly four years after her most recent singles match, feels ambitious to say the least, and in some eyes foolish.

Tennis commentator Craig Shapiro pulled no punches and called the comeback a “stunt”, likening it to Logan Paul beating up 58-year-old boxer Mike Tyson.

Writer Sebastian Gente said, “It's unworthy of the champion she was,” adding that the comeback was possibly out of “pride,” or “worse, out of boredom”.

The concerns are valid. The oldest ever female champion at SW19 was Charlotte Cooper Sterry - and that was in 1901 when she was 37. Roger Federer was 35 when he became the oldest ever men’s champion in 2017.

Even the great Martina Navratilova could do no better than the second round when........

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