Last week, Serena was showcasing some unreal moves at the Super Bowl. She joined Kendrick Lemar on the field to provide some superb dancing to his hit single Not Like Us.

As a player, however, Serena Williams enjoyed 17 years on the WTA Tour as a professional player. She showcased a powerful style of tennis that had scarcely been seen and some of her opponents were beaten from the moment they were drawn alongside her.

However, there were blips during her career. Perhaps most notably one of her final defeats of a professional career that saw her conquer all-comers proved the biggest and it sent shockwaves across tennis on the grandest stage of them all.

Harmony Tan stuns Serena Williams at Wimbledon in 2022

At the time, it wasn’t clear what the future held for Williams. She came into the event without a Wimbledon title for six years and without hoisting a Grand Slam title aloft since the Australian Open in 2017.

Williams came into the event after a year out. She suffered an injury at Wimbledon the year previous and decided to give it a go despite her fitness being far from full pelt.

Frankly, time was running out on the career of one of the game’s greatest-ever performers. However, as was usually the case, Williams being in the draw automatically meant that she’d have to be taken seriously.

The draw was kind too. First up she faced the unknown Tan who had never qualified for Wimbledon before let alone win a match in the main draw, so playing Williams on Centre Court was going to be a sizeable ask.

What transpired was frankly ridiculous. An out-of-sorts Williams fell to a three-set defeat, with the all-time great going out 5-7, 6-1, 6-7 in a match which lasted over three hours.

Tan was ranked 115 in the world at the time of this victory. Despite this huge, potentially life-changing victory, the French player simply failed to capitalise on beating Williams.

Harmony Tan failed to build on beating Serena Williams

This should have been so much different. Tan’s win over Williams placed her into the top 100 on the WTA Tour and building on a 90th place in the rankings should have been achievable.

Tan did well at Wimbledon after beating Williams. She reached round four after also beating Sara Tormo and Katie Boulter before losing in four to American player Amanda Anisimova.

Since Wimbledon in 2022, however, Tan has never experienced winning another match at a Grand Slam event ever again. With her career still ongoing, that could change of course but at 27-years-old she is 225th in the world and plays more ITF competitions away from the WTA Tour.

It’s really Intriguing that after her exploits against Williams at Wimbledon, Tan hasn’t won another match at a Grand Slam, losing to Bianca Andreescu at the US Open in 2022 after being given a wildcard.

Since then it’s been largely frustrating. Three ITF titles have been collected but she’s failed to emerge victorious from qualifying events to make another attempt at playing the main draw of a Grand Slam.

Tan’s struggles merely highlight just how tough life as a professional tennis player can be. One minute you can be riding the crest of a wave and beating one of the best players to ever own a racket and the next you can be losing in qualifiers who see tennis as a bit of a hobby with no real hope of success.

Tan wasn’t even eligible to qualify for the Australian Open this year. As a result, it looks as though it’s back to the drawing board for the French performer who will hope to climb the rankings through ITF tournaments and some day get back into the main draw of a big one.