Ajla Tomljanovic walked off the Arthur Ashe Stadium court on September 2, 2022, as the last person on earth to defeat Serena Williams in professional tennis — a distinction she wore lightly, even with the weight of history in the moment. The Australian had just beaten the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion in three sets in front of a star-studded crowd that included Billie Jean King, Spike Lee, and Rebel Wilson, seemingly closing the book on one of sport's greatest careers. It was meant to be final. Everyone thought so. But now, with Williams making her doubles comeback at Queen's Club in London, the historical record is about to shift.
When Tomljanovic reflects on that September evening, something unexpected emerges: she doesn't mind losing her footnote in tennis history. Speaking to BBC Sport at Indian Wells in March, the 33-year-old explained the peculiar grace of her position. "I remember feeling very conflicted when I played that match, and even after, because it was over for someone that I have looked up to for a very long time," she said. The win itself felt surreal — Williams had served for the first set before losing four games in a row, then held a 4-0 lead in the second before Tomljanovic clawed back to force a tiebreak that Williams took. Only in the third set did the champion finally fade, and Tomljanovic seized the moment. But that victory, she would later realize, was never really about being the last.
"I experienced that match and got the win — but that was more amazing for me. I'll always remember and cherish that," Tomljanovic reflected. "In a way, I don't really care for these history books where I might not be the last one [to beat Williams]. That's totally OK with me." Speaking immediately after the match on that September night, Tomljanovic had already telegraphed her reverence: "I'm feeling really sorry because I love Serena just as much as you guys do. What she's done for me, for tennis, is incredible. She is the greatest of all time."
Williams herself left the door cracked open when asked if retirement was truly the end. "I don't think so, but you never know," she said — a line that carried more truth than perhaps even she anticipated. When Williams returns to grass courts at Queen's Club to play doubles alongside 19-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko, she rewrites not just her own epilogue but the entire context of Tomljanovic's signature victory. It becomes a moment suspended in time rather than a definitive ending, a snapshot in a career that refused to stay finished.
Tomljanovic's equanimity about losing her historical standing speaks to something larger: the gap between how we immortalize athletic achievement and what actually matters to those who lived it. For her, the honor lay not in being the last to beat a legend, but in competing at that level, in a match she played with composure under pressure. Her victory meant something beyond a line in a record book. And now Williams, proving her competitive fire still burns, moves on — with her sister Venus, aged 45, still competing on the WTA Tour and reaching the quarter-finals of the 2025 US Open women's doubles. The Williams legacy continues to unfold in ways no ending could truly contain.